Trapped in the Twilight
by Mikauzoran
Summary: When Kaito is murdered, Hakuba sets out to catch the criminal. The magician's ghost does his best to keep the detective away from the Organization, and while Kaito haunts Saguru, the detective and thief become friends. Can Kaito keep Hakuba safe? Will Saguru bring down the Organization, or will he end up just as dead as Kaito?
1. Haunted (or: Dead, But Still Kicking)

Mikau: Hey there, and welcome to Trapped in the Twilight! Thanks so much for taking an interest in my newest work. First of all, I'd like to say, yes. Sorry. I killed Kaito, but he's still very much a main character. More so in the next chapter on, but the scene had to be set. By the way, the title outside of the parenthesis is Hakuba's, and the (or: …) is Kaito's. Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, the henchmen would get a wardrobe makeover. The guys in trench coats that back up Snake have it especially rough. It must be hard to go to work every day and be enthusiastic about doing evil in such horrendous uniforms. I bet you five dollars that productivity would increase were the henchmen allowed to wear zoot suits. Just sayin'.

….

Haunted (or: Dead, But Still Kicking)

It was the part of the day that could no longer be classified as night but was still not yet morning when the scanner crackled to life, announcing that a body had been found floating in the bay.

Hakuba Saguru had just finished his paperwork on that night's Kid heist and was getting a ride home from one of the officers on duty when the broadcast went out, so he ended up taking a detour down to the docks with the cop. Truly, he didn't mind much. He was already wide awake, so he figured, "Why not help solve a homicide while I'm at it, yeah?"

When he saw the body they'd pulled from the icy water, he nearly fainted.

In all honesty, it shouldn't have affected him the way it did. He'd seen mangled corpses before and had been just fine.

This one was nearly immaculate compared to most of the cadavers he'd dealt with—a single gunshot wound through the right thigh and defensive wounds up and down the arms.

"Man, this kid really fought hard," one of the investigators whistled as he inspected the bruised arms and broken fingers of the corpse. "Just look at the state his hands are in."

"Yeah," another cop sighed, shaking his head. "Brave kid. Must have been some monster that done this to him. Make sure to get under his fingernails real good. Maybe we'll get some of the attacker's DNA."

"Check his teeth too," another chorused. "Maybe he bit the guy."

"Hey, did we find anything to ID him?" the officer that had arrived with Saguru inquired.

"Nah. Nothing. Not even a phone," the oldest policeman sighed again.

"We'll just have to run his prints or check dental records then," Hakuba's escort sighed, not looking forward to the extra work.

Saguru gulped, finally finding his voice. "T-That…that won't be necessary."

All eyes turned and focused on the young sleuth.

"What do ya mean, Hakuba-kun?"

"He's my classmate," Saguru explained, trying to keep his voice steady. "Kuroba K-Kaito."

"You're sure, Boy?" the senior officer motioned him closer to get a good look at the body.

The teenage detective forced himself to look. He knelt on the tarp and carefully inspected the minute details of the face that he had long since memorized.

There were the lips that had taunted him with their mockery, teasing, and challenges.

There was that little nose whose nostrils flared when the magician laughed.

There were those ears that curved into an elfish point at the tips.

There was that birthmark behind the left ear—a small, brown, perfectly-round mole that Hakuba wasn't sure if even the class clown himself knew existed.

And lastly, there were those eyes, those gorgeous eyes that sparkled and shone and pouted and laughed and smirked and glared and glinted and gleamed and danced. Even though the pupils were dilated—either in pain or fear or perhaps both—that beautiful indigo color still glimmered in the early morning light.

Saguru paused, basking in the beauty of those eyes one final time before reaching out and closing them forever. "I'm positive. Kuroba Kaito: seventeen years old, born June twenty-first, blood type B, five-foot eight, one hundred and twenty-eight pounds. It's him."

"I'm so sorry, Hakuba-kun," one of the younger policemen offered his condolences.

"Can we do anything for you, Son?" the senior member of the group asked.

"I'd like a cup of coffee—black. I'd also like to see exactly where he was found, and I'll need to talk to whomever it was that discovered him," the determined detective replied, shakily getting to his feet. "In the meantime, be as thorough as you can. I want samples sent to Hakuba Laboratories for analysis. As you said, there may be DNA under his fingernails or between his teeth. You may also find soil or some kind of particulates in his clothing, embedded in his shoes, or under his nails. I want that sent too. We may be able to deduce where he was killed from those clues."

"Hakuba-kun," his escort called softly. "Maybe it would be best for you to go home and get some rest. You've already had a long night, and this case may be a little too close to home for you to deal with. We'll take care of everything here, so—"

"—May I remind you who my father is?" Saguru snapped. "I don't like to play that card, but this case is extremely important to me. I need to find the bastard that…that… I'm perfectly capable of behaving professionally, so don't worry about it. Please. I'd like some coffee and to be shown to the place that he was found."

The oldest officer shook his head and nudged the rookie. "Go get the boy his coffee. You come with me, Hakuba-kun."

000

Saguru climbed into bed just as the sun started to bathe his room in the gentle rays of morning. He shut the curtains and collapsed into the freshly washed sheets and feather pillows.

He was roused just a few hours later by the sound of Baaya doing her mid-morning cleaning.

The sleep-deprived gumshoe rolled out of bed, stumbled into the shower, and emerged twenty minutes later only semi-conscious. He managed to make it down the stairs and into the dining room only by the grace of god, though he wasn't quite sure which one.

His caretaker wasn't the least bit surprised to find her charge in such a sorry state. "Did the Kid keep you up until all hours again?" she chuckled.

"Yes, in a way," Saguru sighed, poking at his eggy in a basket.

"Doesn't he know it's bad manners to keep a date out all night?" the matronly woman teased as she usually did.

The young master of the house set down his fork and took a deep breath. "Baaya, Kuroba Kaito was murdered last night; they found his body in the bay. I'm going to see if I can get in on the autopsy."

"Saguru, no," she gasped, rushing to wrap her arms around her foster son. "The last thing you need is to see them pull the guts out of the boy you fancy. Go back to sleep, Sweetheart."

"Baaya, I need to find the person responsible for this," the detective insisted, pulling back a bit.

"Child, you need your rest," Baaya proclaimed in that no-nonsense tone that let him know that she'd hear no more of it.

"But, Baaya—"

"—No. To bed with you. Once you've gotten a proper eight hours, you're free to go investigate, but no sooner." The nanny laid down the law of the land.

"I can just drink coffee, Baaya," Saguru protested to no avail.

"No. Eight hours of sleep, something to eat, and then you may investigate. I said 'no sooner,' and I meant, 'no sooner,' Saguru. I'll wake you at one." She gave him one last squeeze before shooing him on his way.

"Thank you, Baaya," Saguru whispered.

"Let me know if you need anything, Young Master." She gave a slight bow, smiling gently at her charge.

000

"You mean to say that you can't determine cause of death," Hakuba growled that afternoon as he looked over the coroner's report.

"No. I've had two other people go over it all, but all we can tell you is he didn't bleed out from the gunshot wound," Ono-san, a kind middle-aged woman, replied, shaking her head. "That boy shouldn't be dead; he's in top physical condition. We were thinking that maybe it was poison, but…"

"…There's no sign of poisoning," Saguru sighed as he went over the report again.

"No. His tox-screen is clean."

"Ono-san, do you think it would be okay if I examined the body?" Saguru held his breath.

"Hakuba-kun, you know you can't. I shouldn't even be letting you go over my notes." She shook her head, frowning. "Don't worry. They have some of their finest on the case."

"Please, Ono-san," the detective begged. "This case is very important to me. I can't leave it to someone else, no matter how good they may be; I have to make sure it's done properly myself."

"I'm sorry, Hakuba-kun, but—"

"—Please!" Saguru dropped his head, bowing deeply. "He's my…my…best friend. He's the only friend I've ever had, and…please. I need to know who…and how and…and why. Please, Ono-san. Please."

"Oh, stand up," she sighed, physically pulling him upright. "Look. I can't let you in, but I'm going on a thirty-minute lunch break in a few minutes." She scrounged around in her pocket and pulled out a key-ring that she subsequently dropped. "Unfortunately, I seem to have lost my keys. Now, if someone were to find them and go in while I was away, there would be nothing I could do about it. Do you think you could stand guard for me, Hakuba-kun?"

Saguru blinked, then smiled. "Yes. Yes, I will. Thank you so much, Ono-san. I won't forget this."

She shrugged, patting Hakuba on the shoulder as she walked away. "I don't know what you're talking about, but let me know if you find my keys."

As soon as Ono-san's back was turned, Saguru was in the morgue. He didn't want to waste a single second of the thirty minutes that he had been promised.

He set right to work, getting out his notebook and taking a deep breath before pulling the sheet back with shaky hands.

And there, lying on a cold metal cart, was his friend and rival, Kuroba Kaito.

The reality of it all didn't quite sink in at that point.

Kuroba didn't really look dead now that his soulless eyes were closed. Sure, he was terribly pale, but he could have passed for sleeping.

Hakuba allowed himself a moment to stare, in awe of the delicate neck, strong arms, and picturesque abs of the boy he begrudgingly had a crush on, before he began his investigation.

Other than the defensive wounds on the arms and hands, there wasn't much out of the ordinary from the waist up. There were no discolored marks or little pinpricks where the poison could have been introduced.

What the detective did notice, though, was that his classmate seemed to shave, pluck, or wax any unwanted hair on his body.

Kuroba's eyebrows had been waxed, and his face was clean-shaven. His chest was bare, and the hair on his arms had been thinned out. Even his underarms were shaved.

Saguru pulled the sheet up an inch or two to look at the legs.

They were waxed and probably had lotion on them. The skin was incredibly soft, yet the calves were hard—pure muscle and probably a little rigor mortis too.

Saguru blushed when he realized he was essentially fondling the other teen's leg and quickly pulled the sheet down, returning to his investigation.

Right. Nothing irregular on the upper body, save defensive wounds. Samples have already been sent to the lab, and the results will have to be picked up late—

He paused when he noticed a thin line of hair starting just below Kuroba's navel and heading south. He gulped. He'd always been curious, but he'd never had the courage to look when they were changing for PE.

He took a deep breath and slowly slid the sheet down further, inch by inch.

He'd just caught a glimpse when he felt the distinct sensation of someone slapping him upside the head.

Dropping the sheet and spinning around, Saguru was more than a little freaked out when he realized that no one was there. He was the only _living_ person in the room.

He steadied his breathing, set aside his stupid teenage hormones, and went back to work.

Next, he inspected the legs, but, besides the bullet wound, there was nothing unusual about them. He still had no idea how the poison was administered.

He sighed, covering his friend up. "Just what happened to you, Kuroba? What happened after you took off on that crazy glider of yours? What happened to you while I was at the station filling out bloody paperwork?"

Saguru felt the weight of hands on his shoulders from behind, and he nearly passed out as images flooded his mind.

He was flying high above Tokyo when suddenly there was a sharp pain in his thigh. He was falling, bracing for impact with the rooftop.

The gunman was there, waiting. He put away his pistol and instead dug out a thin case full of pills.

There was a struggle—hands, feet, teeth. It was hard to make anything out.

There was red hot pain like being set on fire.

Then he was back in the morgue, lying on the ground.

Saguru blinked, pulling himself to his feet. He shook it off, deciding that he needed more sleep. With one last look at his crush and a sigh, Saguru headed for the door. He waited for Ono-san to return so that he could tell her that he'd found her keys, but he headed home directly after that and locked himself in his room.

000

Hakuba had a strange dream that night.

It started out fairly normal as far as dreams about his classmate went. They were in his bedroom, sitting on the couch together.

"Are you okay, Saguru?" Kaito cooed, inching closer.

Saguru sighed, reaching out and cupping the other boy's cheek. "You're dead now, you know. We can't keep meeting like this."

"I'm not dead," Kaito whined, climbing on top of his classmate so that he was sitting on Hakuba's lap, straddling and facing the other teen. "See. I'm right here." The magician lovingly touched the tip of his nose to Saguru's.

"This is a dream," Hakuba scoffed. "In real life, you're dead, and you'd never fall in love with me. You like girls, remember?"

"No," Kaito stated firmly. "_That_ was the dream. _This_ is reality. Besides. Even if that were real, you see how I flirt all the time with the police…and _you_. I'm obviously bi, so forget about that and pick out an outfit for me to wear. What do you want tonight? Maid? Nurse? Cop?"

"I want…you to wear…" Hakuba looked away, blushing. "It's too embarrassing."

"Say it. I won't laugh," Kaito urged. "You know how much I love playing dress-up."

"Kuroba always laughs at me," Saguru argued, rolling his eyes.

"Well, I'm not him, am I? I'm Kaito. I'm your Kaito, so say it. Anything you want. I swear I won't laugh."

"A wedding dress," Saguru whispered. "Let's pretend that it's our wedding night."

"'Kay," the dream Kaito chuckled, his clothes changing in the blink of an eye. "I do," he whispered, leaning in for a kiss.

"Stop!" a panicked scream broke through the dream, causing the lovers to look up and stare at the person in the doorway.

It was Kuroba Kaito. He blinked. "Oh. Can you see me now? I've been yelling and waving my arms like crazy, trying to get your attention for the past five minutes."

Saguru blinked. "Kaito…?" He looked back at the boy on his lap. "No…you're…Kuroba."

"Yeah, and I object to this union," the magician snorted. "What the hell is that?" He pointed in disgust to the dream Kaito.

"I'm Kaito," the one in the dress responded for himself. "Who the hell are you?"

"_I'm_ Kaito. _You're_ some perverted bastardization of me that this sicko made up." Kaito crinkled his nose in revulsion. "Geez. And I thought you were a weirdo before with your stalking and your fixation, but now I find out that you put me in a dress at night and ravish me. That's really messed up, Hakuba. I was wondering what was up when you were checking out my junk and running your hands all over me at the morgue today, but…geez."

The dream Kaito disappeared along with the furniture, and it was just the two of them standing on the ledge of the school roof.

"Whoa," Kuroba gasped, startled by the quick scene change.

"So…you think I'm repulsive, then," Saguru muttered under his breath, gazing down at the ground beneath them.

"Hey, can we have this conversation _inside_ the building?" Kaito glanced anxiously between the detective and the school courtyard below. "You're not gonna jump, are you? Is it true that if you die in a dream, you die in real life too?"

"Answer the question," Saguru snapped. "You think my feelings for you are disgusting, don't you?"

"Feelings?" Kuroba blinked.

"Yes, my love for you," the blonde clarified.

"You love me?!" Kaito gawked, looking a bit like a fish.

"Not of my own free will," Saguru retorted. "…but…yes. Not that it matters. You're dead, and you never would have returned my feelings, even if you had lived. I suppose this is my subconscious trying to tell me to wake up to the facts. If you ever had found out, I suppose you would have ridiculed me. I was a fool to think that you could care about someone like me. It was silly to let myself read into your words and actions when I knew that there was no chance of you actually feeling the same way."

"Hakuba," Kaito whispered. "Look, I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I didn't know you were so serious about it."

"It's fine," Saguru muttered, stretching one leg out into thin air.

"Whoa, wait! Don't jump! I haven't even told you what I came to tell you yet!" Kuroba screamed, grabbing his rival.

They fell together off of the school building, and Hakuba woke up.

Remembering the strange dream, he sighed. "I can't even trick myself into believing that someone could love me in a dream."

He tossed the covers aside, grabbed a cup of coffee, and set about analyzing the data he'd gotten from the lab technicians.

000

Baaya tried to force her charge to eat the following day, but Saguru refused, insisting that he'd be fine so long as he had coffee. When she found him still awake at three in the morning, researching poisons, she decided to intervene.

"Saguru, you need to get some rest, Sweetheart."

"I'm not tired, Baaya." He barely looked up from his work.

"That's because you've been drinking coffee non-stop today. This isn't like you. I know you've just lost the person you love, but…is that really all that's going on? Did something else happen? You seem rather agitated today." The elderly woman took a seat next to his desk and rested a palm on his thigh. "What's going on, Saguru?"

The detective sighed, taking off his reading glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. "I…I just want to find the monster that did this so that I can forget all about freaking Kuroba bloody Kaito. All he's ever caused me is pain and suffering and humiliation, and I just want it to be over with."

"Oh, Child," Baaya cooed, wrapping an arm around the boy she had raised. "I know. I know, but…maybe it would be better if you just let it go. Let the police deal with the case and move on with your life. Take a break from detective work and concentrate on making friends and having fun. I hate to see you so unhappy like this."

Saguru rested his head on his surrogate mother's shoulder and let the tears fall. "You know, I had a dream where he came and told me what he really thought of me. He told me that I was a weirdo and that I was disgusting, and it just made me feel so bad about myself. It made me want to solve the case just to show him how great I was. He always goes on about what a lousy detective I am, so…this time…this once I wanted to show him…it's stupid, I know. It was just a dream, but…he probably did feel that way about me. I need to prove myself, Baaya."

"You've nothing to prove, Sweetheart. You know that. You _know_ that you're a good detective, and I seriously think that this is bad for your health."

"I still want to solve the case, though. I _need_ to," Saguru mumbled.

"Alright, but only if you take care of yourself while you do it," Baaya conceded. "To bed with you. You have to get enough rest, and no skipping your meals. No more coffee, either. Understood, Saguru?"

"Yes, Baaya." Giving his caretaker one last hug, Saguru set about closing things up for the night. He'd get a fresh start on things in the morning.

000

"Saguru," the dream Kaito whined.

"Go away. You're not real, and you don't love me," the detective sighed, burying his face in his hands.

"I am real!" Kaito insisted. "I do love you! Why are you treating me like this?"

"Leave me alone. You're disgusting," Saguru grumbled.

"Don't you love me anymore?" the figment of his imagination cried.

"Please, just stop tormenting me," Saguru pleaded.

"Are you breaking up with me?" Kaito's sobs continued.

"We were never together to start with," Saguru himself began to cry.

"You know, there's nothing wrong with indulging a little bit in your dreams," Kuroba sighed begrudgingly as he entered and took a seat beside the detective on the couch. "I mean, you should see the things _I_ do in my dreams. It was wrong of me to judge you like that before. I was just a little surprised to see myself all over you wearing a dress, but…I guess it's my fault. I shouldn't even be in here anyway."

Saguru blinked, wiping his tears away. "K-Kuroba?"

"Yeah." The brunette shrugged, looking off to the side. "Go ahead and be all lovey-dovey with your boyfriend. You have my permission, and I swear I'll knock next time before breaking and entering into your dream."

"I don't want him," Saguru sighed. "He's fake. He doesn't even act like you."

"I'd say he's pretty accurate." The magician shrugged, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his knees. "I can see myself acting like that if I were madly in love with someone."

"But you love Aoko-kun," Saguru replied.

Kaito nodded. "Yeah, but…she deserves better. Even if I hadn't kicked the bucket, I don't think we would have ended up together. I never wanted to hurt her…and…lies aren't a very strong foundation for a relationship."

"You mean…because you're Kid?" Saguru held his breath.

Kaito laughed, biting his lip as he slowly turned to look at his rival. He smiled and nodded.

"I knew it! I knew it was you, but somehow you always…you always…but I _knew_ it."

Kuroba just chuckled. "Oh yeah. You were dead right. It was actually kind of fun thinking up new ways of convincing everyone else that you were nuts. I couldn't have asked for a better rival…well, actually, there was Kudo Shinichi while you were away, but he doesn't fixate like you do. He's more interested in murders…speaking of which, you've got to stop investigating mine."

Saguru blinked. "What? Why?"

"Because it's too dangerous. The guys that offed me killed my dad too when he was Kid. They stop at nothing to get rid of people that know too much, and you're a lot easier of a target than I am. You don't have a top hat and monocle to hide behind, and as soon as they notice you sniffing around, they'll kill you and everyone you care about."

"That's not very many people, Kuroba," Saguru snorted.

"Still," the thief argued. "Stop now before you end up like me."

"I can't," the detective retorted. "I won't. I'm a detective, and I _will_ bring your murderer to justice."

"Geez," Kaito sighed, beginning to get frustrated. "For being so smart, you're awfully dense. What part of 'you're going to get yourself killed' don't you get?"

"I don't have to listen to you. You're just a part of my subconscious trying to get me to give up. I _will_ have my answer. I _will_ know why you were killed."

"Idiot," Kaito snorted, resting his chin in his palm. "I'm dead because I was stupid and careless. Even if you did catch the guy who did it, he'd only tell you that he killed me because he felt like it. He's been trying for a while now. He was probably ordered to by his boss, but ultimately he killed me because he likes killing. That's the long-story-short version of your answer. You wouldn't believe the full-length version."

"Oh? Try me," Saguru challenged.

"Would you believe me if I told you that I'm frienemies with a witch?" Kaito asked a test question.

"No. Witches don't exist," the logical half of the pair laughed.

"Then you wouldn't believe the full-length version. Sometimes even _I_ have trouble with it, and I've been chased by robot dolls, been hexed, and even had my life hijacked by a crazy robot clone."

Saguru just blinked.

"Man, I wish I could talk to you when you were conscious," Kaito huffed. "You probably don't even believe in ghosts."

"I don't," Hakuba responded promptly.

"Lovely," Kuroba hissed. "Well then. Let's play a game. Tomorrow, I'm going to move your stuff. Then we'll see if you believe in ghosts."

Saguru just chuckled. "Right."

Kaito sighed. "…You know, he really does look like me." He motioned to the dream Kaito, still sulking by the fireplace. "Do I really have that mole behind my ear?"

"You do." Saguru smiled, going over to comfort his imaginary lover. "I'm sorry, Dove."

The dream Kaito cheered right up, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend and kissing the detective full on the lips.

Kuroba sighed when he realized that he would never be able to do that. "I'm gonna go, Hakuba. You two have fun."

"So soon?" Saguru inquired, looking back at his guest.

"Yeah, I've gotta go check on my mom," Kuroba sighed, mussing the detective's blonde locks. "Look, don't get yourself killed, okay?"

000

The following day, Saguru inexplicably kept misplacing his things. He'd thought that he'd set down his notebook on his desk, but when he went to fetch it, it had disappeared. He later located it on top of the mantle.

The great detective also managed to lose his pen, his flash-drive, and even his tie.

"Maybe it's a ghost," Baaya replied with a shrug when he told her of the strange occurrences.

"That's silly. Ghosts don't exist," Saguru firmly insisted.

That night he wondered if maybe there was something to his dream after all, but he eventually wrote it off as his brain playing tricks on him.

000

The funeral was that Saturday, but it felt like a farce to Hakuba, since there was no body in the casket.

Kuroba was still in cold storage until they could decide what had killed him in the first place.

Saguru waited patiently for his turn to offer his condolences to Kuroba Chikage, making the best use of his time that he could. He studied the other attendees and tried not to think too much about the body that wasn't in the casket.

There was an entire section of his and Kuroba's classmates. Koizumi Akako could be seen among them, trembling and biting her lip, looking very, very determined not to cry. Momoi Keiko was there as well, bawling into her handkerchief. Oddly enough, Aoko-kun wasn't at her side.

Aoko-kun had her face buried in her father's chest a few rows away in the police officers' section. The poor girl looked like she hadn't slept in days.

One thing Hakuba did find odd was the number of foreigners at the magician's funeral. There were three whole rows full of young men and women with hair and eyes all different colors of the rainbow. None of them were crying, though. They sat silently, solemnly, staring straight ahead.

Now that Saguru looked again, there was _one_ that was weeping. An electric blonde girl was resting her head on the shoulder of the redheaded man sitting next to her. Her eyes were closed, but there were tears slowly streaming down her cheeks.

Up front, Kuroba Chikage looked a bit like a zombie. She cried quietly as the older gentleman next to her gently comforted her.

After all the formalities were over with and it would not be considered rude for him to leave, Hakuba quietly proceeded to the exit; however, the sight of a young man standing next to the door made him freeze in his tracks.

It took almost a minute for the other teen to notice Saguru's eyes on him, but when he did, he frowned and looked behind himself. Seeing that there was no one else there for the detective to be staring at, the young man once again looked confused.

The teen pointed to his nose and mouthed, "Me?"

Saguru nodded slowly, convinced that he was going mad.

The boy smirked, and, at that moment, Saguru was positive that it really was Kuroba Kaito—just as certain as he had been when he'd identified the magician's body days before.

Kaito turned towards the door and beckoned for Hakuba to follow. Once outside, the thief took off at a run, every once in a while glancing back to make sure that his detective was still giving chase.

They came to an alley that dead-ended into a brick wall.

Kaito skillfully jumped—rather like a cat, Saguru thought—catching the ledge and pulling himself up to sit on top of the wall. He let his leg swing back and forth, and he smirked as he allowed Saguru to catch his breath. Kaito wasn't even breathing hard.

"So you can see me now?" the dead man giggled.

Hakuba (who was currently doubled over, gasping for air) managed to nod.

"Sweet," the apparition chuckled. "_Now_ do you believe in ghosts?"

The blonde shook his head.

"Aww, come on!" Kaito sighed, leaping from his perch. "You saw me dead. More than saw me—you felt me up while I was lying dead on a slab in the morgue. You _know_ I'm dead, so how the heck do you explain me standing here having a conversation with you? Huh?"

"I've finally snapped," Saguru announced, righting himself. "You're a concoction of my imagination."

"Dammit. Why are you so logical?" Kuroba bit his lip as his brow creased in thought. "Okay, what do I have to do to convince you that I'm a ghost? I've already moved your stuff around. I could walk through walls, if you'd like. I could levitate or scream 'Boo!' or…or…what? What do I have to do?"

"Tell me something about yourself that I'd have no way of knowing," Saguru requested. "My mind could just be playing tricks on me. If you tell me something I already know, it proves nothing. Tell me something I don't know."

Kaito frowned. "Okay. I…I…Oh! I know! I'm afraid of f-f…f-f-f…f-fish."

"Are you quite serious?" Saguru deadpanned.

"Dude, you couldn't make something like that up. When he threw me in the bay, I was having a serious panic attack," the ghost informed.

"You were still alive when he threw you in the bay?!" Saguru gasped. "But…there was no water in your lungs."

"Nah, I was dead, but…you know. Still. I was kind of attached to my body until a little bit after they pulled me out of the water. I couldn't go very far from it the first day, so I just hung out in the morgue. It was kind of freaky watching them cut me open and pull my insides out," Kaito recounted his traumatic experience with death.

"I…can only imagine." Saguru gulped. "Where did you go once you were able to leave your body behind?"

"I went home with you when you left the morgue." Kuroba shrugged. "Sorry. I didn't mean to haunt you, but now I think it's a good thing I did. Like I said before, you've gotta stop this investigating my death nonsense. You're gonna get yourself killed."

Saguru blinked, and abject horror flooded his body. "You mean when you were in my dream."

"Yeah. Like I said, these people are—"

"—God, why me?" Saguru howled, covering his rapidly reddening face with his hands.

Kaito jumped. "What's the matter? What happened?"

"You were in my dream!" the detective wailed, feeling utterly sick. "You saw…" the dream Kaito. "…and you said…" all of those hurtful things about him being a disgusting freak.

It was worse than accidentally going to school in your underwear.

All of the pain and humiliation hit him at once, and he suddenly felt the strong urge to hide under a rock.

"I have to go," the detective meeped with a bow before dashing away from the thief just about as fast as he had chased him earlier.

Kaito called after him in confusion but ultimately let his rival go.

…

:}i{:

Mikau: It's a butterfly! It's my favorite, and I thought it appropriate because butterflies have traditionally been symbolic of the soul. Anyway, yeah, it was a little depressing, but hopefully there were humorous parts as well. It'll get funnier next chapter when Kaito's in it more, but I hope you guys liked it. If you wouldn't mind, I'd really appreciate it if you could drop me a few lines about what you liked and what you didn't. I'm a crowd pleaser, and I can't please you, if I don't know what you want. I'd like to continue to improve my writing, so if you could please take a minute or two to give me some feedback, I'd be grateful. Incidentally, I've started going to Zumba classes at my local gym. I don't like them as much as the ones I went to up at school, but beggars can't be choosers. Anyway, the point was that if I have to dance to I'm Sexy and I Know It one more time… Seriously. All of the instructors use it. Hearing it once in a while is fine, but _every class_ is a little excessive. Terribly sorry if that's your favorite song. Actually it reminds me a lot of Kaito. Thanks again, and have a good one!


	2. Determination Stubborn Blonde Detectives

Mikau: Hi everyone! Welcome back! First off, I want to thank Raifuujin and CJWrites for their reviews; they were super helpful. Thanks as well to everyone who favorited and is following this fic. I'd really like to know why you liked it so much so that I can continue doing whatever it was you liked, but thank you so much for your support. I'm glad you liked it! Hopefully you'll like this chapter as well; it's a bit funnier. I also want to let you guys know I'm doing a poll on my profile page right now. I want to start a forum so we can all chat, but I'm not sure what kind of forum you guys would like. I have a few options to vote on on my page, if you'd take a minute to check it out.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I'd take a pair of tweezers and yank out those little hairs that hang down on Mouri's forehead. You know the ones I'm talking about. They drive me nuts! …I have OCD; give me a break. And on with the show…

…

Determination (or: Stubborn, Blonde Detectives)

The ghost found his detective with his head under a pillow a few hours later. "You okay, Tantei-san? You kind of ran out on me earlier."

Hakuba was silent.

"Dammit. Can you not hear me again?" the magician growled in frustration. "Geez. How the hell does this stupid ghost thing work anyway?" He took a seat on the bed and blew a stream of air up his face, making his bangs billow. "Geez, I'm bored…and no one can see me outside of dreams. This sucks."

The deceased teen got up and began to pace the room, muttering, "This sucks, this sucks, this sucks," over and over again.

"Will you kindly put a sock in it?" Saguru snarled from under his pillow.

"If you could hear me, why didn't you say anything, you jerk?" Kuroba snapped back.

"I don't want to talk to you right now! Go haunt someone else!" Hakuba yelled, hurtling the pillow at (and through) his classmate.

Unfortunately, Kaito was standing right in front of a table lamp, which fell over and broke when hit with the pillow.

"Okay, that was _not_ my fault," the apparition stated in his own defense.

"How was I supposed to know that you were intangible?" the detective hissed, getting up to survey the damage. "You seemed to have no trouble moving my objects around and getting yourself up on that wall today! This is all your fault."

"Hey, it takes some effort on my part to touch stuff, so don't go blaming me. How was I supposed to know that you were about to throw a pillow at me?" the older of the two snorted.

"Stupid ghost," Hakuba huffed, swiping his hand through Kuroba's stomach.

"Hey! Quit it!" the ghost protested. "That feels weird."

"Oh?" Saguru laughed, doing it again.

"Stop!" Kaito whined, swinging his own arm through the detective's midsection.

"Hey!" the blonde exclaimed, taking a step back.

"Saguru?" Baaya called out to her charge as she rushed down the hall and threw open the bedroom door. She paused when she found her child alone in his room, perfectly unharmed. "Is everything alright?"

"Uh…yes. Yes, perfectly fine. The lamp just got knocked over, but everything's just fine, Baaya," Saguru floundered a bit, nervously indicating the broken appliance.

"Oh." Baaya blinked, eying her charge in suspicion. "I thought I heard shouting."

"Shouting?"

"Yes. Shouting. It sounded like you were talking to someone, Saguru." His foster mother stood her ground until he cracked.

"Okay, Baaya. Please don't be alarmed. I'm probably just overtired, but I've been hallucinating today," Saguru explained. "Kuroba Kaito has been following me around and talking to me, and it was him that I was just arguing with. Please don't worry, Baaya. I'm sure that I'll get better with rest."

"Is that all?" Baaya chuckled, going up to Kaito and giving a little bow. "How are you, Kuroba-kun? It's lovely to have you in our home."

"Wait. You can see him?!" Saguru exclaimed.

"No," Baaya shrugged as she turned to face her young master. "I can't make out any humanoid features, but I do see his aura. He's a very handsome little sky blue orb."

"Why, thank you." Kaito smirked, giving a polite bow.

"I first noticed him hanging about you a few days ago, and I wondered if he wasn't Kuroba-kun. Sometimes orbs do that when you're on a case, Saguru. I was always curious about whether or not you saw them, but you'd never said anything before."

The detective's face went as white as rice powder. "I've had g-ghosts haunt me before?"

"They don't mean any harm, Dear," Baaya assured. "Now that you can talk to them, it should be a lot easier to solve cases, shouldn't it? Look on the bright side." She stood on tiptoe in order to pat him on the head before heading towards the door. "I'll have someone come and fix the lamp tomorrow, so don't worry about it, Saguru. Kuroba-kun, feel free to stay as long as you like. I'm sure Saguru is enjoying your company immensely."

The detective blushed and went back to sit on his bed. "Oh, yes. Immensely."

"Why are you so mad at me, Hakuba?" Kaito sighed, going to join his rival.

"Because I told you that I loved you, and you called me a weirdo," Saguru hissed in utter embarrassment.

"In all fairness, I called you a weirdo _before_ you told me that you loved me," the magician reminded. "…and I don't think you're a weirdo for loving me. I think it's weird that you like putting me in a dress and making out with me, but…I think you have excellent taste in men, and I respect your feelings, even though I don't share them."

"So…you don't think that I'm a freak?" Saguru whispered. "You're not going to make fun of me?"

"Nah. I actually think it's kind of sweet that you like me so much." Kaito shrugged with a lopsided smile. "I'm flattered…a little creeped out by the wedding dress, but generally flattered by your devotion. I hope you and dream Kaito are very happy together. I'm sure you'll have beautiful children."

"So…that's a 'no,' isn't it?" Saguru mumbled.

"Yeah…. It's a no," Kaito confirmed. "Sorry, Hakuba, but thank you for loving me. Really, it means a lot. I mean, it's a huge honor to be loved so deeply by someone, but…I can't return your feelings. Besides, I'm dead…and I'm sure you'll find someone awesome someday."

Hakuba nodded, but no words would come out.

"You know, I'm gonna go check on my mom," Kaito said as an excuse to step out and give the detective some space. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

Saguru nodded again.

"Good night, then. Don't do any more investigating until I get back."

000

Kaito seemed to appear out of nowhere the following day while Saguru was drawing up a list of possible crime scenes based on the particles that had been found under the magician's fingernails.

"I thought I told you to stop," the deceased teen sighed in exasperation, causing the detective to jump.

"Ku-Kuroba!" Saguru cleared his throat, collecting the shards of his composure. "I…I didn't hear you come in."

The ghost shrugged. "It's not like I opened the door. Waste of effort. I _thought_ I _told_ you to _stop_," he repeated as if he were talking to a rather stupid naked mole rat.

"And I told you that I was going to investigate regardless." Saguru continued constructing his list.

"I'm not joking around, Tantei-san. These are seriously bad guys, and they _will_ kill you. They have guns!" Kaito exclaimed, waving his arms up and down, frenzied.

"So I gathered from the bullet wound in your thigh," the Brit scoffed. "I don't care, Kuroba. If they _are_ as bad as you say, they need to be brought to justice. I will not let your death be in vain."

"Thanks, but too late," the apparition sighed, going to lounge on the bed.

"I do wish that you wouldn't do that," Saguru sighed wistfully as he gazed at his crush.

"Why? Am I sexy?" Kaito teased, blowing a kiss.

"I wonder if this counts as necrophilia," the blonde whimpered, biting his lip. "Wait. What do you mean, it's too late?"

Kuroba rolled off of the bed and shrugged. "My old man was looking for this gem when he was killed, and about a year or so ago, I started to look for it too. We were trying to keep it away from the bad guys so that they couldn't use it for evil. I didn't find it before I died, though. I didn't get the chance to destroy it, and now, if they get it, I'm sure a lot of people will die. So…it's too late. There's no one else to take up the mantle and search for Pandora, so…"

"That's why you always gave back what you stole," Saguru breathed, finally able to put the puzzle together. "Dammit. I knew there was something off. It was a search pattern. You…you're like the Green Hornet."

"The who?" Kaito blinked, taking a seat on the couch back.

"The Green Hornet. He was a good guy that pretended to be a bad guy in order to throw everyone off. There was a new movie released a year or so ago. He was trying to find out the truth about his father's death. It was made to look like an accident, but it was really murder."

"Dude!" the teenage superhero shouted. "I'm not _like_ the Green Hornet, I _am_ the Green Hornet! That's exactly what happened to me! Oh, man. I could be a comic book hero! Do you think they'd make a comic about me too?"

"No offense, but I wouldn't want to read a comic where the hero dies." Saguru let him down gently.

"Dammit. Being dead sucks…. You know, Yu Yu Hakusho did pretty well, and the hero dies right at the very beginning in that one," Kaito pointed out.

Hakuba blinked. "Thanks for the spoiler alert."

"It happens on, like, the third page. Get over it," the pouty ghost whined. "Anyway, the moral of the story is that I deserve a comic book and you need to stop poking your nose where it doesn't belong before it gets shot clean off your face."

"I doubt they'd shoot my nose," Saguru sighed with a roll of his eyes. "I'm a good guy. Good guys always get shot in the arms first."

"Yeah, yeah. Go on. Break the fourth wall; see if I care," Kaito snorted, sliding down onto the actual seat part of the couch. "Hey, I'm a good guy too. Why the hell do I always get shot in the chest?"

"Technically your moral alignment is ambiguous," Hakuba chuckled. "That means that you're free game."

"Ambiguous my a-double-s. I wear a white suit, for crying out loud!"

"Look on the bright side: you got shot in the leg this time," Saguru reminded his guest.

"Whoopie." Kaito wiggled his fingers back and forth. "Snake misses for once and just ends up poisoning me to death. How lame is that?"

"So you _were_ poisoned to death!" the detective exclaimed in triumph. "Do you know what this 'Snake' person used?"

"Dammit," the phantom hissed under his breath. "I don't know anything, and the word of some ghost that only you can see is not gonna hold up in a court of law."

"I don't know about that. There was this movie a year or so ago where the ghost of a samurai testified in court. The murdered woman herself even showed up," Saguru helpfully informed the spirit.

Kaito rolled his eyes. "You and your movies. You must have a lot of free time."

Hakuba bit his lip before finally responding. "I don't have friends to hang out with after school, so I go to the movies whenever I don't have a case. That way I can pretend that I do have friends, and it keeps Baaya from worrying."

Kaito frowned. "You should have said something. I always thought you had your own friends or work or something when you rushed out after school. If I'd of known, I would have invited you to hang out with Aoko and the others and me."

"You have no idea how happy that would have made me," Saguru chuckled with a smile.

"Do you wanna go now? I was wanting to see that Space Brothers movie, but dying kind of put a damper on that. Whadda ya say? We'd only have to pay for one ticket…and popcorn. I really want popcorn," the magician insisted.

"Can you even eat, now that you've passed away?" Hakuba laughed at the enthusiastic ghost.

"No, but I'm not gonna let that stand in the way of enjoying the simple pleasures of life," Kaito declared, determined not to let his untimely demise keep him down. "If all else fails, I'll have you eat it and tell me how it is."

"I don't really care much for popcorn." The detective snickered at the utter look of incredulity on Kuroba's face.

"What's wrong with you?" Kaito gasped. "Popcorn's the best!"

"If you say so."

"But…but…you'd eat popcorn for _me_, wouldn't you, Hakuba?" The panicked look on the dead magician's face was actually kind of adorable.

"Yes, Kuroba. I'd eat popcorn for you," Saguru assured his crush.

"Awesome! You're the best. Now, let's go to the movies!" Kaito grabbed his friend's arm, exerting a little effort to make his hand solid enough to pull Hakuba.

"Not so fast." Saguru easily broke free of Kaito's loose hold. "I want you to tell me what you remember about your death first. Anything you can tell me will keep me from having to poke my nose where it doesn't belong in order to unearth the details myself. Can you tell me what poison this 'Snake' character used on you?"

Kaito sighed. "No. No, I can't, but I'll draw you a picture of it and tell you about what happened after the movie. Date first, murder later."

"D-Date?" Saguru stuttered, cheeks going cherry blossom pink.

"Yeah." The magician gave a nonchalant shrug. "I mean, you're taking me to the movies, aren't you? That's considered a date, isn't it?"

"Y-Yes. I s-suppose so." Saguru felt so happy he could have died. "Are you really okay with going on a date with me?"

"So long as you know it's a platonic date. You've been perfectly clear about your feelings for me, and I've been just as frank, so don't get your hopes up; nothing's gonna happen. Besides, I shouldn't need to reiterate this, but I'm DEAD...but…that doesn't mean we can't still have fun together…so…just think of this as a reward for being a good rival." Kaito shrugged, trying to look cool as he looked away in embarrassment.

"Thank you, Kuroba," the detective whispered, a broad smile on his face.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't look so happy," the thief snorted lightly. "It makes me feel guilty. Why do you like me so much anyway?"

"You're compassionate, selfless, and just," Hakuba replied easily.

"Me? Hardly," Kaito laughed. "How do you figure?"

"You may have noticed me researching you, but—"

"—Stalking," Kaito coughed.

"Researching," Saguru stressed. "Anyway, I became a bit of an expert on you. I learned that you don't do what you do for any kind of reward but simply because it's the right thing to do. You go out of your way for others without expecting anything in return, and you're very considerate of other people's feelings, like at the end of the Nightmare case…or when that dog got trapped in the safe…or what you did for that boy when you stole that baseball."

"How did you know about that? You weren't even in the country at the time," Kaito gasped, gaping at the European sleuth.

"I told you. I thoroughly researched you." Saguru smirked.

Kaito blushed. "Okay, saying it like that with that smirk on your face makes it sound dirty. Like you peeled my clothes off or something."

"You know, tonight, my dream boyfriend is going to make the face you're making right now, and I'm going to kiss him senseless," Saguru announced, emboldened by his crush's flustered reaction.

Being able to make Kuroba make that face gave him a rush.

Kaito's mouth opened and closed several times, but no sound came out.

"I'm sorry. Was that too forward?" The rush was gone, and Saguru began to panic. "If it makes you uncomfortable, I promise to stop. I just thought…maybe it would be okay to tease you a little, but—"

Kaito burst out laughing. "No, it's fine; tease me all you want. It's just you've been so subdued lately, I was kind of wondering what the hell had gotten into you all of the sudden. No, frankly, I miss the days when you used to get up in my face, challenge me, and tell everyone that you were going to expose me. I was a little sad when you clammed up after getting back from your little stint abroad."

Saguru smiled half-heartedly. "Yes. I have to say that was rather a low point in my life."

"What? Why? What happened?" Kaito asked, taking a seat on top of the desk.

Saguru could hear the genuine concern in the other boy's voice.

The sleuth took a deep breath and looked down at his hands. "Up until Kid, I had never failed before…not as a detective, anyway. You saw what I was like when I first arrived. I was all ego and self-confidence. Well, after enduring months of failure and humiliation, I couldn't take it anymore, so I went back home. You really changed me, you know. You shattered my confidence, my self-worth. You made me realize I wasn't Sherlock Holmes—you notice that I retired my outfit after my 'stint abroad.' That was also about the time that I realized I felt a little more strongly about you than a classmate should. It was…a rough few months."

Kaito just nodded, utterly speechless. Saying 'sorry' would never be enough, so he took his friend's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Hey, let's go to the movies, Hakuba."

"And then you'll help me solve your murder?" The detective looked up with a soft smile.

"And then I'll make sure that you don't get murdered while trying to solve my murder," Kaito promised.

000

"It was a red and white capsule. I only caught a quick glimpse of it as he shoved it in my mouth, so, unfortunately, I can't tell you much." Kuroba shrugged as he hung upside-down off of the couch in Saguru's room.

"Do you remember if it had any kind of smell or taste to it?" the detective inquired, trying to work with what little information they had.

"I don't think it did…but it felt like I was being burned alive once I swallowed it. My heart hurt…like it was gonna explode. It hurt a lot," Kaito mumbled, sitting up properly. "Snake said something about it being an experimental poison they were using."

"You mean the organization that killed you."

"Yeah. Why?" Kaito raised an eyebrow at his host, looking a little bit like a cautious feline.

"I'm trying to think of ways we can get this syndicate. One man committing one murder with an untraceable poison doesn't mean much, but if we can prove that multiple operatives committed multiple crimes with the same untraceable poison, we'll be able to link them together. Once we arrest a couple, we can offer plea bargains and deals to get them to turn on their partners. We just need to find more victims. Once we find a link in murders that were previously thought unrelated, we may be able to convince the police to start an official investigation. You'd like that, wouldn't you? If the cops were on the case, I wouldn't have to stick my own neck out as much, and that would make your job of keeping me breathing a lot easier."

Kaito sighed. "Yeah, but…it would be putting a lot of other people at risk. Those cops…they…they could get killed."

"…Kuroba, these people need to be brought to justice. I know you don't want to get other people involved, but we can't do this by ourselves. We need help in order to shut them down, and, yes, it will be sad when some of ours die, but their sacrifices are necessary to keep Japan safe. If I understand what you've told me, hundreds of thousands of innocent lives are at stake. I'd gladly give my life to protect them, and so would the brave men and women of the police force... And you…Kuroba, you already have. Do you think it wasn't worth it?"

Kaito sighed again and rolled his eyes. "No. I get it, I get it. Don't monologue heroically at me. So…what's the plan?"

"I'm going to use my contacts within the police to try and find any cases like yours. I'm similarly going to check in with my fellow detectives. Hopefully we'll be able to find enough linked cases that we'll be able to put the police on the organization's scent. In the meantime, I, personally, am going to continue work on _your_ case."

"Okay, but let's call it quits for tonight," the deceased proposed.

Hakuba blinked. "Why? It's barely ten, and I have a veritable ton of work to do. I have to determine where you were killed, what kind of poison killed you, who this 'Snake' person really is, whom he's working for, where they all are now, and, above all, I must find proof."

"Hakuba, you look tired," the magician cooed, patting his friend on the head. "I'm still gonna be dead in the morning, so go to sleep. You promised Baaya that you'd take care of yourself, and I don't like to see you running yourself into the ground for my sake either, so…get some rest."

Slowly, a broad smile stretched itself across Saguru's face.

"Thank you, Kuroba."

Kaito shrugged, playing it cool. "No biggie."

"And…thank you for the date. I had a wonderful time." Saguru bowed as he thanked his crush.

"Yeah, yeah. Me too. Geez, go to sleep already. Your boyfriend's waiting for you…. I'm gonna go check on Aoko, but I'll see you in the morning to start work. Sleep well, Hakuba." Kaito gave a quick nod of recognition, and then the apparition was gone.

"Goodnight…Kaito," Saguru whispered.

000

Saguru was chasing Kaito along the beach, the crashing waves licking at their legs.

All of a sudden, the thief turned on his boyfriend, slinging an arm around his waist and pulling him down into the sand.

The lovers began to playfully nip and affectionately nuzzle each other as the real Kuroba Kaito looked on from under the palm tree he was leaning against a little further up the shore.

The spirit sighed as he gazed in envy at the couple. He knew he would never know love like his dream counterpart, so it stung to see his other self so happy, crazy in love when he'd never have the chance to be. He'd missed his opportunity.

Kaito pushed off of the rough bark of the palm with a sigh and trudged through the sand to where the pair was cavorting like kittens.

The dream Kaito glared as he noticed the other brunette approaching. "You mind? We're _busy_," the thief spat as he possessively pinned his detective to the ground.

"Did you need something, Kuroba?" Saguru blushed, doing his best to avoid eye contact with the original phantom thief.

"Yeah, I did." Kaito turned back to the detective's hissing fantasy boyfriend. "Mind if I borrow your boy toy for a minute?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," the fake growled. "I don't share, and you know it."

"I'm sorry, Dove, but could you give us a moment?" Hakuba mediated.

Dream Kaito pouted for a minute before kissing his boyfriend deeply, full on the lips. "Don't cheat on me, Guru."

"I would never, Love," the detective swore.

Feeling reassured, Kaito gave his beloved another kiss and dismounted. He glared bullets at his rival as he walked away, muttering, "Make a move on him and you're dead…again."

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Saguru apologized as he straightened his swimming trunks and attempted to brush off some of the sand. "It must be rather awkward for you."

"It's cool." Kuroba shrugged, taking a seat on the beach beside his friend. "The dress was freaky, but you two are kind of cute…you know, if he didn't have my face. I guess it's a little bit like you're dating my younger twin brother." He sighed, resting his chin on his knees as he gazed out at the sunset.

"Is something wrong, Kuroba? You said you needed something?" Saguru asked tentatively.

Kaito nodded, biting his lip.

It could have just been the lighting, but Saguru could have sworn that his crush's eyes looked a little damp. He remained silent, though, letting the magician speak whenever he was ready.

"I just…I needed to talk to someone that…that would understand, you know?" Kaito choked as he began to tear up.

"I'm here. I'm listening," Hakuba assured, hesitantly placing a hand on the other boy's shoulder.

"I…I went to see A-Aoko, and—" He burst into tears, unable to get the rest out.

"Shh…It's okay," Saguru whispered, rubbing his hand in small circles on Kaito's back. "Let it out."

They sat there in relative silence for a good while.

Kaito's sobs progressively grew softer as Saguru continued to comfort him.

"When I went to visit A-Aoko," Kaito tried once more, voice only cracking slightly. "I realized what a mess I'd made of everything."

"What do you mean?" Saguru quietly inquired, still rubbing diligently.

"I've screwed everything up—my entire life. I've hurt so many people, including myself, and for what? Some stupid rock that may or may not exist!" Kaito spat bitterly. "Don't get me wrong; being a superhero and saving the world is noble and everything, but dying for the common good sucks. I'm seventeen, for crying out loud, and now I'm dead—dead before I even got a chance to live!"

Saguru wrapped his arms around the other teen as Kaito started to cry again.

"G-God this sucks!" Kaito buried his face in the crook of Saguru's neck.

"I was gonna do stuff, you know," the phantom started again a while later, this time softer. "I was gonna be a world-class magician like my dad. I was gonna grow up and marry Aoko and have three kids—two boys and one girl…. Now she's gonna grow up without me…forget about me and marry some other guy. Everyone's gonna get older, move on with their lives, and forget..."

"No one's going to forget about you, Kuroba," Hakuba assured authoritatively. "Your fangirls—both Kid's and Kuroba's—will be mourning for years to come, and our classmates and teachers will feel off without you around. Your friends will always feel your absence, and your family will never forget you. _I_ will never forget you, Kuroba, and neither will Aoko-kun. You are loved by so many people, Kuroba, it would be virtually impossible for _everyone_ to forget."

Kaito sighed, letting his weight rest against the detective. "Still…what's gonna become of me now?"

"That depends, I think, on what you believe. Half of my family says you go to Heaven, if you've been good—and you _have_ been good, Kuroba, trust me. The other half says that you're reborn again and again until you reach enlightenment. Do you feel enlightened, Kuroba?"

"No. I feel very, _very_ stupid at the moment," the magician mumbled.

"Then take your pick: Heaven or reincarnation."

"Do you think my karma's good enough to get reborn as a normal person this time? I must have been bad before because this whole life of tragedy, world saving, and untimely demise kind of sucked," Kaito sighed as he lifted his head.

"Your life wasn't so terrible," Saguru replied. "Think of all the good things you had: friends, intelligence, family…Kuroba, you were truly and deeply loved. There are some people that yearn for that more than anything."

"You mean…you?" Kaito picked up from the tone in his companion's voice.

Saguru nodded.

"Your family? Parents?"

Saguru shook his head.

"But…Baaya loves you," Kaito argued.

"Yes. Very much, and I _know_ that, but…sometimes I think having a couple more people that care might be nice," the detective sighed.

"I care," Kaito mumbled shyly. "Platonically, of course, but…since I died, you've become one of the best friends I've ever had. I'm really sorry that I made your life hell for so long."

"Don't worry about it," Saguru whispered, tilting his crush's chin up. "You're wonderful."

"H-Hey, d-don't go all gay on me," Kaito stuttered, getting a little flustered due to the gleam in those goldenrod eyes.

Saguru took his thumb and gently wiped away the remnants of Kaito's tears. "God, I hope reincarnation exists. I sooo want another crack at you."

And while Kaito was too stunned to react, Saguru leaned in and stole a kiss—Kaito's first.

It felt a little like being electrocuted, only on a smaller scale. The vibrations pleasantly pulsed through his body, and so, out of shear curiosity, he gave in and kissed back a little, experimentally.

Though, as soon as their lips parted, it was an entirely different story.

His senses came back to him, and he pushed away, shrieking (in a manly way, of course), "Hakuba, I don't like you like—I was just curious, but—We shouldn't be—"

"—Shh…I know." Saguru placed a finger on Kaito's lips in place of a kiss, cutting the magician off. "You were perfectly clear. I know, so don't worry. Just have a little fun with me, okay? We'll both feel better." He playfully nipped the underside of his beloved's jaw and chuckled in delight when he discovered that the real Kaito reacted the very same way his dream boyfriend did. "No strings attached." And then he took Kaito's lips once more.

There was a moment of panic before Kaito's brain short-circuited and he gave in to his more basic instincts.

It wasn't a bad thing, he reasoned. There was nothing wrong with it. Teens were supposed to go crazy and experiment and all that. It was normal, and this could possibly be his last chance to experience life and redeem himself. After all, he had already died a virgin.

Making out on the beach never hurt anyone, and, besides, it was only a dream.

….

\./

[^.^]

Mikau: It's supposed to be a TV set. Did anyone watch Nickelodeon as a kid? Anybody remember Face? For those of you that don't know, it was just the cartoon face on the screen that talked between shows. It turned colors and was rather amusing when I was five. I wonder if Nickelodeon still uses Face. Anyway, yeah. Today when I was visiting with my grandma, I asked her how old one of my cousins was, and she said that she didn't know. I asked her how old I was, and she said she didn't know. I asked her how old she thinks I look, and she said, seventeen. I get that a lot, actually. I don't know why. I've definitely got a woman's body, but I guess my face just looks young. My mom said it might be because I don't wear makeup. Well, thanks so much for tuning in. I hope to see you next week too. If you have a minute, I'd be grateful if you could send in your thoughts/comments/something so that I can get an idea of what I'm doing well/not so well. Thanks again guys, and have a wonderful week!


	3. Being Set Up (or: If You Love It)

Mikau: Hey guys! Yes, I know this took forever. One of my coworkers has been on vacation the past two weeks, so I've been getting double the hours I usually do. Oh well. What matters is I'm able to post now. Thanks so much to Raifuujin, Sirastar, and Shara Raizel for your reviews. I really appreciate your support. Enjoy the new chapter!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I would fire the person who designs Ran's clothes. Everyone else has gotten a fashion upgrade throughout the progression of the series, so why not Ran? Why must she suffer? I don't really care one way or another for her, but…still. No one should have to wear half the stuff they've put her in. I'm really picky about clothes, though, so maybe it's just me.

….

Being Set Up

(or: If You Love It, Set It Free)

The next morning, Hakuba Saguru was very surprised to find a ghost in his bed, curled up in a ball, rather like a kitten.

At first he thought he was still sleeping, so he reached out and gently stroked his darling's cheek, whispering, "Kaito…"

The apparition's eyes fluttered open as Saguru's hand went _through_ his face, and the detective jumped.

"K-Kuroba! I'm terribly sorry. I thought I was still…Pray tell, why are you in my bed?"

The thief blushed, sitting up but casting his eyes down. "I…uh…I was just kind of tired…um, after everything that happened last night, so I kind of just stayed here after your dream ended, but ghosts don't sleep, so…"

Saguru blinked, not having the foggiest what his companion was talking about.

"Listen, about what happened on the beach last night," Kaito continued with a gulp.

"Beach?" the detective echoed. "What beach?"

"The one in your dream," Kaito replied as he looked up, face mostly blank with a twinge of equal parts confusion and embarrassment. "You…don't remember what you dreamed last night?"

"Human beings go through several sleep cycles per night and, thus, have multiple dreams. It isn't uncommon to not remember every single one." Saguru blushed. "I remember…I solved your murder. We brought down the organization, and then my father retired so that he could spend more time with me. My mother moved to Japan, and some scientist found a way to bring you back to life.

"I also think I dreamed something about…going to a circus? Maybe it was a heist; they're very similar." Saguru sat up, pursing his lips and furrowing his brow. "I don't think I remember a beach."

Kaito blinked. Just when he'd thought his luck had run out, he received a get out of jail free card.

While he was slightly insulted that Hakuba had forgotten their sultry make-out session in the sand, he was infinitely more relieved that his friend didn't remember.

Kaito had known that it was wrong to fraternize with the blonde, but he'd made excuses like, "It's only a dream," "He said 'no strings attached,'" and "I may never get another chance to try this" and just enjoyed the experience; however, as soon as the dream ended, Kaito had started to deeply regret his actions.

He'd been filled with dread as he thought, "Did I just ruin our friendship?" "What if he expects stuff from me from now on?" and "What if he gets the wrong idea?"

Now all of his worries and fears were relieved.

"What were you about to say about it?" Saguru's question brought Kaito back to the here and now.

"Uh…nothing much," the thief began to flounder but did his best to keep up his poker face. "I just wanted to say sorry for interrupting your date with _my_ relationship drama."

"Relationship drama?" the detective repeated.

"Yeah." Kaito's cheeks went a little rosy. "It was pretty ugly. I went to see Aoko, and I kind of realized that I was never gonna be able to fall in love and have a family and all that, and I was kind of torn up about it. You and the other Kaito were busy making out on the beach, but I kind of cut in and cried on your shoulder. I just wanted to say sorry…and thanks. I was in pretty bad shape, and you were really there for me. It means a lot to me, but I've gotta say, I'm really glad you don't remember it, since it was so embarrassing, you know?"

"Now that you mention it, I think I do remember you crying…the making out part too. We don't usually kiss that…passionately. You didn't happen to see that, did you?" Saguru's face turned bright red.

"Uh…a little," Kaito confessed, rolling off the bed. "Anyway, we should probably get to work on my murder. Daylight's a-wasting, after all. So…uh…where do we start, Tantei-san?"

"Well, some of us need to shower, get dressed, and have breakfast before the crime solving starts, but after I've eaten, I plan to narrow down my list of crime scenes based upon your testimony and the data that's been gathered," the Brit summarized as he climbed out of bed. "How's that sound?"

"Sounds just peachy," Kaito sighed, taking a seat on the couch. "I'll wait here, I suppose, since I don't require as much maintenance as you living folk do."

Saguru flinched at the sharp, bitter tone to his crush's voice. "I'm sorry, Kuroba. That was rather insensitive of me. I'll have Baaya bring me up something so that we can get started right away. Okay?"

"No," the apparition sighed deeply once again, running a hand through his hair. "No, it's fine. Do your thing, Hakuba; don't worry about me. _Seriously_. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me lately. It's like I'm PMSing; my emotions are all over the place. I didn't mean to…just…I'll wait here."

"Kuroba…" Saguru bit his lip as he awkwardly stood to the side. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around the boy he loved, hold him, and comfort him, but he had a feeling that his attentions would only freak his friend out and make him even more agitated.

"I said, don't worry. It's fine," the deceased assured, bringing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around his shins.

"Kuroba, no, it's not." Saguru finally got up the nerve to go to his beloved. He sat down next to the ghost, placing a supportive hand on Kaito's intangible shoulder. "You're dead. You have every reason to be upset and act crazy…crazier than usual. _You're_ the one who shouldn't worry about it. Just…let me know what you need." The detective's face went fire-engine red, but he forced himself to look the other teen in the eye. "You _know_ I'd do anything for you."

The very tips of Kaito's ears went scarlet, but he kept his poker face on. "Don't go all gay on me, Hakuba," he chuckled.

"Too late," Saguru responded, getting a little braver.

It was then that Kaito noticed the glow in his rival's eyes—pure, sweet, and simple love. He pulled back. "Look, I know you like me, and I've come to be okay with that, but…you've gotta let me go, Hakuba. Even if I _was_ interested in you, I'm _dead_. Nothing can happen between us, and I don't want to hurt you anymore, so…forget about me. 'Kay?"

"I'll never forget about you," the detective swore, getting up and going to his closet to pick out clothes for the day. "Besides, I've got a bit of a masochistic streak in me."

"I've noticed," the frustrated phantom muttered, absent-mindedly watching the living half of their duo dress.

He also happened to notice that Hakuba didn't have a six pack like he had had in the dream.

The detective seemed larger—taller and more bulky—than the Hakuba that Kaito had made out with on the beach. His hair was duller and his eyes were darker—not as bright and entrancing as they had been the previous night.

Kaito hummed in thought as he contemplated Hakuba's dream-self. He considered the blonde to be good looking. Sure, he wasn't the best judge of male beauty, but Hakuba seemed to measure up to all of the girls at school's standards. Kaito never would have thought that the detective would want (subconsciously or otherwise) to change something about his appearance.

Then again, in the past week, Kaito had learned a truck full of things about his rival that he never would have guessed before.

"S-Something the matter, Kuroba?" Saguru tentatively inquired when he turned and found his crush eying him.

Kaito blinked. "No. Just noticing that you look different in your dreams than you do in real life."

"D-Do I?" The Brit blushed.

"Yeah." The magician shrugged. "You're smaller, for one, and you've got washboard abs."

"Oh?" Saguru gulped, turning back around to search for a different tie. "Well, one can look however one wishes in a dream. I'm sure many people alter their appearances in dreams."

"I don't." Kaito shrugged again, shifting so that he was hanging off of the couch, upside down. "I don't really have anything I'd want to change. I mean, sometimes I wish my hair was a little…more tame, maybe…nah, then I'd look like Kudo Shinichi, but…why do you think that is? That people change the way they look, I mean?"

"Not everyone can be as confident as you, Kuroba. Some people wish to fit in…be popular…be accepted. Some people…" Saguru took a deep, cleansing breath before going on. "Some people are dissatisfied with the way they look."

"You mean you?" Kaito blinked, flipping so that he was once again right side up.

"I'm going to take a bath. We'll work on your case after breakfast," the detective muttered, making a beeline for the door.

"What's wrong with the way you look?" the magician asked out of curiosity. "Sure you look different from most people, but I think different is good. It makes you interesting, and most of the girls at school think you look dreamy—their words, not mine. Besides, everyone thinks that foreigners are cool—"

"—I am NOT a _foreigner_," Saguru snapped so viciously and so suddenly that it made the thief jump. The blonde whipped around and glared down his houseguest. "You have NO _idea_ what it feels like to be treated like an _outsider_ in your own country. You don't know what it feels like to have people speak slowly to you in Japanese like you're a child or, worse, try to speak to you in broken English because they assume you can't speak a word of your own mother tongue. You've never had people talk about you within earshot because they think you won't understand. Your family doesn't ostracize you because you're the mud-blooded, half-bred black sheep.

"And it's not even just in Japan! Do you know how many times some bloody cabby has asked me, 'This your first time in England?' You have no idea how it feels to be an outcast! You have no idea what it feels like to not belong anywhere! You don't—" Hakuba stopped, face going white when he realized what he was doing.

He clapped a hand over his mouth, bowed, and muttered, "Excuse me," as he fled.

Kaito just sat there, gapping open-mouthed for a while afterwards.

000

Saguru took a loooong bath, opting to spend most of it submerged up to his nostrils soaking in the tub.

For ten years he had kept that rant bottled up inside, and at the least opportune moment possible, it had finally slipped out.

"_Yes, Saguru. Go ahead. Shout at the guy you like. That'll work."_

He sighed, putting the rest of his face into the water and blowing bubbles of frustration.

He raised his head and wiped the leftover water droplets from his face.

His hands were wrinkly.

Time to get out and face the big, scary world.

Another sigh, and then he stood up, dried off, got dressed, and went down for breakfast.

Baaya had made an omelet, toast, and sausages this morning. She'd left it out on the table with a cover over it to keep it warm. She was always very thoughtful that way.

Perceptive too.

She took one look at him and demanded, "Saguru, what's wrong?"

The young master shook his head, taking a seat and starting his first meal of the day. "I may have yelled at Kuroba and scared him off."

"I was wondering where he was this morning." Baaya nodded, taking the seat opposite her charge. "Usually he floats around…gazing in envy at your food, I imagine?"

"Yes," Saguru chuckled. "He does that. Food seems to be the thing he misses the most. He's a simple creature, deep down." The smile faded from Hakuba's face. "You're trying to distract me?"

His foster mother nodded. "You're probably making it out to be more than it is, Sweetheart. Kuroba-kun most likely shook it off while you were in the shower. A spirit as bright and bouncy as that more often than not isn't one to dwell on little disputes. Eat your breakfast and then go up and say sorry, Saguru. It'll be just fine."

"How can you be so sure of everything, Baaya?" Saguru sighed, trying to shrug off his worries and eat his omelet.

"When you've lived as long as I have, Sweetheart, you start knowing things," the sage assured. "You think you're smart now? Well, just wait until you get to be my age."

"You're not _that_ old, Baaya," Saguru snorted.

"I'm triple your age, you young whippersnapper," Baaya snorted back.

Saguru smiled. "But you still look lovely."

"Charmer," the matronly woman chuckled, swatting her charge with one of the cloth napkins. "Eat your breakfast and go make up with your boyfriend."

"Yes, Madam."

000

Kaito was sitting on the couch's arm when Hakuba gathered up enough courage to open the door a crack and peer inside his room.

"You're still here," he replied rather stupidly, gawking at the ghost.

The apparition in question shrugged. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Saguru blushed, tentatively inching his way into the bedroom. "I thought…I yelled at…before…I'm sorry, Kuroba. I shouldn't have—"

"—Don't sweat it," the magician urged, cutting his host off. "_Please_. You don't have to feel bad about it. It's not your fault that I pushed your buttons the wrong way. Sorry, by the way. Let's just forgive and forget on this one, okay?"

Saguru nodded. "Thank you…. Then…shall we get started on the search for the crime scene?"

"Can we do something else first?" Kaito bit his lip as he hopped down from his perch. "I kind of need a favor."

"Sure. What is it?" Hakuba readily agreed.

"Will you go visit Aoko for me?" Kaito asked, crossing his fingers, holding his breath, and pleading with his eyes.

000

Despite being Aoko's classmate and Nakamori-keibu's coworker, Hakuba had never seen their house. He didn't even know where it was; Kaito had to guide him.

"This is it." The magician motioned to the quaint little house in front of them.

Saguru was unimpressed.

Obviously the head of the Kaitou Kid Taskforce didn't make a lot of money. Not like the Superintendent of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, anyway.

The Inspector opened the door and was quite surprised to find Hakuba standing there with a small bouquet of flowers.

"Good afternoon, Sir. I came to see how your daughter was doing. I thought some company might make her feel—"

Before Saguru could even finish the sentence, a loud crash was heard in the background along with sobs and shrieks. The words themselves were inaudible.

The cop just shook his head slowly in exhaustion, stepping out of the way to grant the sleuth entry. "Good luck."

"This way," Kaito sighed, leading Hakuba to Aoko's room.

As they got closer, the sobs became easier to discern, "BaKaito! You idiot! Wh-Wh-Why'd ya have to go and leave?!" among other obscenities that she had probably learned from her father.

"Aoko-kun?" Saguru called softly as he rapped on the door. He tried again, a little louder, when she didn't reply.

All at once, the noise within came to a halt, and the door slowly opened a tad after a good minute or three.

"Ha-Ha-Hakuba-kun?" a puzzled Aoko hiccupped as she peeked through the crack at her visitor.

"Aoko-kun. Sorry to come all of a sudden, but…I just wanted to check up on you…make sure that you were okay," Saguru explained nervously. "A-Are you okay?"

The strange, spacy look in the normally bright and bubbly girl's eyes was a little disturbing.

She blinked, the lights coming on abruptly. "Hakuba-kun! W-W-W-Wait here!"

The door snapped closed, and the boys were left to wait in the hallway while what sounded like major remodeling went on inside.

Ten to twelve minutes later, the door opened fully, and there stood a rather disheveled, but nicely dressed, Nakamori Aoko.

She wore a cute little dress, but her hair was a veritable rat's nest, and her face was completely red. Her eyes were bloodshot, and it looked like she'd been crying for hours on end instead of sleeping.

"Oh, Aoko-kun." Saguru dug out his handkerchief and began to work damage control.

Aoko began to cry anew. "Ao-Ao-Aoko's…s-sorry. I-I-I don't…Aoko can't…" and then she deteriorated into sobs once more.

"Shh…I know. Believe me, I know," Saguru assured. "He was very important to me too. I'm not going to pretend to know exactly how _you_ feel since you obviously knew him better and longer than I did, but…I know how it made _me_ feel. Don't worry about appearances in front of me; I won't judge you, so just scream, cry…do whatever you need to do. It's okay—healthy even—to grieve."

Aoko paused and considered what she'd been told for a minute before collapsing into her visitor's arms and bawling uncontrollably about the loss and sadness and abandonment she felt.

Saguru held and comforted her until she finally tired herself out. All the while, Saguru watched his beloved pace endlessly, like a majestic feline going mad in a zoo.

"I'm in hell. This is what hell's like," Kaito muttered under his breath as he listened to his darling wail, knowing that there was nothing he could do.

"S-Sorry," Aoko sniffled, pulling back and going to sit on her bed. "T-Thank you."

"Don't worry about it." Saguru smiled, easily shrugging it off. "Are you feeling a little better now, Aoko-kun?"

"Y-Yes," Aoko stuttered as she caught her breath. "Yeah, actually. For the past week, everyone's been telling Aoko not to cry because Kaito wouldn't want her to be sad, but…the more she heard that she shouldn't, the more it made her want to. Hakuba-kun, you're the first person that's told Aoko that it was okay to cry."

"I think it's easier for people to tell you not to cry. When you cry, it makes them feel awkward. They love you and want to see you happy, so it hurts them when you're hurting. Don't blame them for not wanting you to be sad; it just means that they care about you." Saguru took a seat in the desk chair. "I, however, have experienced a lot of loss. Thus, I've gone through a lot of counseling. I know it's best to grieve—but only for a little while."

"How long is a little while?" Aoko sighed, rubbing at her eyes.

"You get a month to cry and carry on like you have been," the expert informed her. "After a month, you have to start getting back to reality. Don't get me wrong, you can still be sad and hurt, and you can break down every once in a while, but you can't let grief take over your life. As much as Kuroba doesn't want to be forgotten, he wouldn't want your holding onto him to ruin your future happiness. All he ever wanted was to make you smile…and chase him with a mop, but…he was the kind of person that wanted to make others happy."

Kaito nodded, taking a seat on the bed beside his life-long love.

Saguru's aside got a giggle out of the devastated girl, causing him to smile as well.

"Thank you, Hakuba-kun," Aoko whispered.

He shook his head. "It's the least I can do for the both of you."

"Both?" Aoko blinked those beautiful sapphire eyes that had become dull over the past week.

"You and Kuroba. He's probably floating around in utter despair, watching you cry and knowing he can't do anything about it."

Aoko blushed. "Aoko hopes not. She looks terrible."

"Tell her she looks adorable," Kaito begged, gazing sadly at the sovereign of his heart, not a foot away, yet still he was unable to touch her.

Saguru blushed. "You look rather…adorable, Aoko-kun."

Aoko blushed. "Y-You think so?"

"Y-Yes," the detective continued after receiving a death-threat-glare from the ghost. "In a sort of damsel in distress sort of way. Very feminine and…and delicate."

"Offer to take her out somewhere," Kaito commanded. "Like…for ice cream or something. I bet she hasn't left the house since the funeral."

"Aoko-kun? Would you like to go somewhere? Maybe for ice cream? I think some fresh air would be good for you. It might make you feel a little better," Saguru suggested, trying to make it sound like the farthest thing from a date that he could.

Aoko blinked. She smiled and, surprisingly, nodded. "Aoko…would like that, but…would you mind waiting a bit, Hakuba-kun? Aoko needs to shower."

"Uh…certainly. I'll be in the parlor."

"What about the flowers?" Kaito rolled his eyes, reminding the detective.

"Oh. Right. Aoko-kun, I almost forgot, but…I got these flowers for you. They're not much, but…if you like…"

Aoko's eyes lit up, and then they began to tear up, but she was still smiling. "Thank you."

Saguru went to the parlor to wait, glad that Kaito had talked him out of roses.

"How did it go?" Nakamori-keibu inquired from his armchair. "I hear that the screaming and sobbing has stopped. What happened? Did she conk out?"

"She cried, we talked, and now she's getting ready so that we can go for ice cream," Saguru explained.

The Inspector stared at his guest in absolute shock. "Son, you're a miracle worker."

000

"Aoko used to get ice cream with Kaito," the magician's sweetheart sighed, giving her cone a half-hearted lick.

"You should smile when you say that," Saguru urged. "Don't let your memories of him make you sad. Remember how happy you were and _smile_."

"But…Kaito's never going to eat ice cream again," Aoko choked, beginning to tear up.

"Don't remind me," Kaito sighed, letting his head thunk against the table.

"So you'll just have to eat enough for the both of you," Hakuba suggested.

"Just don't get fat, Aoko," the ghost snickered.

"He'd probably tease me about getting fat, if I did that," Aoko snorted, puffing out her cheeks like a child.

Hakuba couldn't help but laugh. They knew each other so well; he was a little jealous.

"He was such a jerk," Aoko began to rant. "Just like ice cream…so cold…but…he was really sweet sometimes. Then he'd go and ruin everything when he'd look at Aoko's panties or flip her skirt or call her fat or insult her father. He just made me so mad sometimes."

"Because you're beautiful when you're angry," Kaito chuckled, looking up longingly at his beloved.

Saguru smiled sadly, wishing that Kuroba would look at _him_ that way. "You know, Aoko-kun, boys are often mean to the girls they like. I wouldn't be surprised if he only pranked you because he resented the power you had over him or was afraid of his feelings for you or wanted to protect your friendship by keeping his emotional distance or something like that."

"Hey, don't psychoanalyze me," Kaito grumbled, blushing madly.

"Y-You think that Kaito…l-l-liked Aoko?" The poor girl turned the same hue as her crush.

"I know he did," Saguru replied confidently. "We used to butt heads and compete over you all of the time," he chuckled.

"H-Hakuba-kun…do you…do _you_ like Aoko?" the startled school girl whispered.

Saguru blinked then turned purple. "M-Me? A-A little. I mean, not…not like…like _Kuroba_ did. Please don't get me wrong; you're a very charming young lady, but…"

"Then why did you compete with Kaito over Aoko if you don't _like_ her like her?" Aoko asked with sparkling eyes.

"Yeah. Why is that?" Kaito jumped in.

Saguru's face rapidly raced through the red-purple color spectrum. "I…I…I mean…at first I did it for your sake. Above all, I endeavor to be a gentleman, and a gentleman always assists a lady. At the time, before my own heart was involved in this mess, I saw it as my duty to make Kuroba treat you the way you deserved to be treated. By offering myself as a rival, I thought perhaps Kuroba would wise up and confess to you. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and after a short time my motives became more self-serving. I continued to compete with Kuroba in hopes of winning you over and keeping the two of you apart. I'm sorry. I'm not very proud of what I did."

"But…why?" Aoko insisted while Kaito nodded in understanding. "Why would you want to keep Kaito and Aoko apart if you didn't like Aoko?"

"Let's just put it this way," Saguru whispered, dropping his gaze into his sundae in shame. "even though I was pretending to be Kuroba's rival, I was actually yours, Aoko-kun."

Aoko blinked. It took a moment for her to process the information, but then her mouth fell open, and a giant, "Eeeeeeehhhh?!" came out. "Y-Y-You l-liked Kaito too, Hakuba-kun?!"

"Yes. I do," the detective confessed, just waiting for her to scream "Gross!" or call him some horrible name.

"Did Kaito know?" Instead he was met with genuine interest.

"Y-Yes. He'd just found out recently, though."

Aoko nodded slowly. "And…what did he say about it?"

"Thanks, but no thanks," Saguru sighed, taking a bite of his butterscotch ice cream. "Sadly, he seems to prefer women. I never stood a chance."

Kaito shifted uncomfortably, looking anywhere but at his friend.

"I'm sorry," Aoko replied gently, feeling a twinge of guilt.

"It's not your fault," Saguru assured both her and himself. "Even if you weren't around, he wouldn't have given me a second look anyway. All of my charm, money, and wonderful personality never would have made up for the fact that I was born male. There's not much I can do about it. I mean, I'd change, but I know I'd make a hideous woman. I'd have to have a lot of work done before I'd even be presentable….

"One night I went so far as to draw up a list of what I'd have to change in order to be pretty, and it included everything from a new nose to taking a chunk out of my legs in order to make me shorter. That time I went back to England a half a year ago, I was seriously considering it, but…more than the cost and the excruciating pain, I didn't go through with it because I was afraid it still wouldn't be enough.

"If I mutilated myself beyond recognition and he still told me, 'I can't love you,' or, worse, laughed at me and called me a freak, I knew I'd never be able to get over it. So…it's not your fault, Aoko-kun. I could have tried harder, but I didn't have the guts to."

"Hakuba…" Kaito whispered, heart breaking for his friend.

"Hakuba-kun…" Aoko echoed. "You must be hurting too. Aoko's just been thinking about herself, but other people are hurting too because of Kaito's death."

Saguru nodded.

"How do you go on, Hakuba-kun? You loved him just as much as Aoko did, but you're not locked in your room sobbing and wailing."

"No, but I'm still grieving. I just have another way to channel that grief. I'm working to catch the murderer, and when I find the people responsible for Kuroba's death, I'm going to make sure they rot in jail," Saguru responded with determination. "You know, Aoko-kun, there's an old saying that goes, 'When life throws a dagger at you, there are two ways you can catch it: by the blade, or by the handle.' You can either let Kuroba's death wound and cripple you, or you can use it as a tool to make yourself stronger. I prefer the latter."

"But…how can Aoko use Kaito's death as a tool?" Aoko asked, a puzzled look on her face. "What can she do?"

"You could use this experience as fuel to make yourself a better cop, if you choose to go down that road in the future. You could learn how to let someone go and carry on on your own. There's really a lot of opportunities for growth here. Just…make some positive change come out of this tragedy because, really, your loved ones are right when they tell you not to cry because Kuroba wants you to be happy. He loved you whole-heartedly, and he wanted a bright and happy future for you. I'm sure that hasn't changed even though he'll no longer be a part of it. Don't be afraid to move on and fall in love again. Never forget him, but don't let your memories of him hold you back. He wouldn't want that," Saguru preached as he watched the magician nod in agreement out of the corner of his eye.

"You too, Hakuba-kun," Aoko urged, to the detective's mild surprise. "Even though Kaito didn't _love_ you, you were still very important to him. Aoko's never seen Kaito warm up so quickly to another person before. Sure, he's friendly with everyone, but he really only has a few real friends. Hakuba-kun, you were one of them, and he treasured his friends above everything else. Even though you may not think that he did, he cared about you, and he wouldn't want you to give up on future happiness because of him either."

"She's right, you know," Kaito whispered. "I never would have admitted it at the time, but you've been my best friend for a long time now."

Saguru blinked, utterly gobsmacked. "R-Really?"

"Of course!" Aoko cried.

"Really, really," Kaito chuckled.

000

Aoko was treated to a movie after ice cream, and then the boys escorted her home, Kaito making Saguru promise to come visit again.

An extremely grateful Nakamori-keibu extended an open invitation to the detective brat that he hadn't been able to stand a few hours prior.

"You two make a cute couple," Kaito hummed as they made their own way home.

If Saguru had been drinking something, he would have spit it out. "What?"

"You heard me. You and Aoko make a good couple; you have my blessing." Kaito jumped up on a chain-link fence and continued to walk as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"You want to set me up with Aoko-kun?" Hakuba's mouth fell open, and he stopped in his tracks.

"Yeah. Why? Is she not good enough for you?" The protective best friend glared down his darling's potential suitor.

"No. She's a lovely, charming girl. I'm just confused as to why you'd want to set the love of your life up with someone like me." Saguru shook his head as he trotted to catch up with the phantom.

"Because you're exactly the kind of person I'd want her to end up with." Kaito shrugged but still managed to keep his balance. "You're well-off, intelligent, good looking, kind, honest, principled, loyal, and dedicated. If it can't be me, you're my second choice. You're the kind of person that's worthy of her, and…more than that, she's the type of person that _you_ deserved to be loved by."

Saguru paused as Kaito hopped down from the fence in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"And Hakuba? You don't need to change to become good enough; you're already fine the way you are. _I'm_ the one at fault here. I'm the one that can't see past something as trivial as biological sex. I'm sorry that I'm so shallow, and I really hope you fall for someone better—like Aoko—next time. So…don't feel so down, okay?"

Saguru nodded, feeling minutely better.

"Would it be any condolence if I told you that I think you'd make a scandalously gorgeous woman?"

That coaxed a small smile onto the teenage sleuth's face. "Thank you, Kuroba."

"Seriously. I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off you," the magician chuckled and began walking once more.

….

v(AwA)v

Mikau: So, I've decided that his name is Herman. He's a gremlin. Don't ask. Also, I just happened to look at my Story Stats today, and I realized that a lot more people read this than I thought. I had no idea that so many people liked this story since I'd only gotten a few reviews per chapter. I wanted to thank you guys for your support, but I am interested in why so many people favorite and are following this fic. Take care guys! See you next week!


	4. So Many Stairs (or: Legwork)

Mikau: Hello there! Welcome back! Sorry for the delay; I was working on my JET program application, but updates should be steady now (I hope) that I have most of that out of the way. There should be a CBC update tomorrow or the next day too. I've got work, so we'll see if I get around to posting, but it should be soon. By the way, thanks to Shara Raizel, Raifuujin, and Athie Lestrade for your reviews. It was really good to get the feedback, but now that I've realized that quite a bit more people than I thought were reading and following and favoriting, I'm less worried. I was really wondering what I was doing wrong before I checked the story stats. Anyway, thanks, guys, and enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I would hire someone to pick out Hakuba's outfits in the morning. He really shouldn't be allowed to dress himself.

….

So Many Stairs (or: Legwork)

"I'm already tired, and I haven't even accomplished anything today," Saguru sighed as he sat down to dinner.

"And whose fault is that?" Kaito snorted, expending a great deal of energy to pull out a seat for himself.

"Yours," Saguru chuckled as he watched his friend struggle with the chair. "Let me get that for you."

"Don't treat me like a woman," Kaito pouted but allowed the detective to pull the seat out for him anyway.

"Oh, okay. I'll let you wrestle with it from now on, shall I?" Saguru smirked.

"Dick," Kaito hissed, setting his head down on the table.

"Ah-ah-ah," the younger of the two scolded. "Just because Baaya can't hear you doesn't mean you can talk like that in front of her…. And do sit up, Kuroba."

"I hate you," the ghost growled.

"I love you too, Darling," Saguru snickered, piling a little bit of food onto a salad plate and sticking a pair of chopsticks straight up into it. He pushed the plate in front of his guest. "There you go. Enjoy."

Kaito blinked then laughed. "An offering to the dead? Awww, you shouldn't have."

"I know. I really shouldn't have at the table. It's terrible manners," the gentleman sighed, turning to his housekeeper. "Sorry for excluding you from the conversation, Baaya. How was your day?"

"Oh, just fine, Saguru. Don't worry too much about including me; you two are just precious to listen to, even if I am missing half of the dialogue. I can mostly figure it out. And what did you two do today?"

"Kuroba wanted to visit Aoko-kun, so we went for ice cream and then to the movies. We talked a great deal, and I must admit, I had a rather good time. Kuroba wants to set the two of us up now that he's gone," Saguru recapped. "And I got absolutely nothing accomplished in regards to this one's murder." He indicated the occupant of the chair to his left.

Baaya nodded. "That's rather noble of you, Kuroba-kun, letting go so that she can find happiness. My Saguru will take good care of your girl, so don't worry."

"I know." Kaito grinned, responding even though he knew he wouldn't be heard. "That's why I picked him."

"He says he knows," Saguru translated.

"And what are you boys going to do now? It's getting late, and you look exhausted."

"Baaya, it's hardly seven, and there's still plenty of work to be done. I have to find the crime scene and scourer it for clues before the trail goes cold," Saguru made his case.

"Just…don't wear yourself out, Saguru. Kuroba-kun? You'll make sure he gets to bed at a decent time?" Baaya turned to the glowing blue ball of light.

"Don't worry, Baaya. I'm on it!" Kaito assured.

"He says yes," Saguru translated, making quick work of his dinner. "Well, I'm off to work. Thank you for the meal, Baaya. It was delicious."

"I'm not done yet!" Kaito whined, concentrating all of his efforts on grabbing hold of the chopsticks stuck in the offering.

"Kuroba, you can't eat that. Even if you were to get the chopsticks out, you'd still have to get the food to your mouth, and even if you did get the food to your mouth, you have no digestive tract. I'm sorry, but you can't eat, Kuroba," Hakuba sighed.

"Poor thing," Baaya cooed.

"I _will_ eat. By sheer willpower, I will eat," Kaito growled, managing to get a grip on the chopsticks and pull them free.

Unfortunately, the eating utensils fell out of his hand directly afterword.

The phantom thief sighed. "I hate my afterlife."

"Come along. We have a murder to solve, Kuroba." Saguru gently nudged his friend.

Kaito got up and begrudgingly followed. "Will you push in my seat for me?"

"Of course, Kuroba."

000

They set to work as soon as they reached the bedroom. Well, Saguru did anyway. Kaito just kind of collapsed on the couch.

After three and a half hours of analyzing the data, Saguru finally said, "Alright. Based on the pieces of gravel stuck under your fingernails, the wind speed and direction on the night of your murder, and the possible flight courses from your starting point, I've narrowed it down to five rooftops."

"That's it? After all of that?" Kaito was clearly not impressed. "What took you so long, _Mei_-Tantei-san?"

"Hey," Saguru whined. "That was a lot of work. You should be astounded that I accomplished so much in such a short amount of time."

"Kudo Shinichi could have done it faster," Kaito grumbled. "Kudo Shinichi probably could have figured out a way for me to eat too."

"Are you still on about _that_?" Saguru sighed.

"Yes. Yes I am," the deceased pouted. "Hakuba, I want to eat! You don't understand how terrible this is!"

"Oh, and I want you to come back to life and kiss me, but you don't see me whining and carrying on, do you?" Saguru snapped. "Quit complaining and help me solve your murder so you can move on, get reincarnated, and eat whenever you please."

"Sorry," Kaito sighed, rolling over onto his stomach. "It's just so frustrating, not having a body. I can't do anything, and…sorry, Hakuba. I know you're trying your hardest. What were you saying?"

"I was saying," Saguru continued, only more gently this time. "that I only received a list of the different minerals and compounds under your nails. First I had to determine what went together and then what each substance was. When I learned that one of them was gravel, I searched to find the company and brand by its formula. I then did a little hacking in order to access consumer records to find out who all bought that kind of gravel. I cross-referenced that list with a list of companies that had buildings within all of your possible lines of flight that night. After thoroughly researching, I have narrowed our options down to five. Now, is that or is that not impressive?"

"You're amazing, Hakuba," Kaito chuckled. "Sorry."

"I'd rather hear 'thank you,'" the detective pushed his luck. "or maybe 'you're definitely better than Kudo Shinichi.'"

"Thank you," Kaito acquiesced.

"Am I not better than Kudo-kun?" Saguru asked with big doe eyes.

"Jury's out on that one." Kaito shrugged, unwilling to tell his friend that "Kudo-kun" had already shown him up several times in the guise of a grade schooler. "So, you got pictures of these rooftops for me to look at, or are we going in person tomorrow?"

"Here are the pictures," Saguru sighed, pulling up the files.

Kaito was quickly able to eliminate the first three, but the last two looked fairly similar. The thief paused, biting his lip as he clicked back and forth between the two. "I'm not really sure. It was kind of dark at the time, and I was sort of too busy being shot and killed to notice much of the surroundings, but I know it wasn't one of the other three."

"Maybe seeing it in person would be best," the detective decided, shutting things down for the night.

"I guess we can go first thing in the morning." Kaito shrugged and then yawned with a stretch.

"It would be better to go now," Saguru informed his partner. "It was dark when you were there before, so you would probably be able to identify it more easily a second time at night."

"But…it's your bedtime. Baaya will get angry. Plus, I don't think it's safe for you to be going out at night alone to a murder scene," the thief reasoned.

"We'll sneak out, so Baaya will never have to know, and I won't be alone because I'll be with you. It'll be fine, Kuroba. I never knew you were such a worrywart," Saguru snorted, grabbing his things and putting them in a sack.

"Well, if I were _alive_, _I'd_ have no problem with it, since I'm naturally inclined to stupidity, but I'm _dead_, Hakuba, and you're not. I'd like to keep you that way," the older teen quipped.

"That's awfully sweet of you, but I'm rather stubborn, and I've decided that I'm going. You can tag along, if you'd like. It'd make my trip a bit pointless, if you didn't." Saguru smiled and made his way to the door.

"At least take a scarf," Kaito groaned. "It's cold out there at night!"

The magician needn't have worried.

Baaya was waiting for them just outside the door with her arms crossed, a displeased scowl on her face. "And just where did you think you were going, _Young Master_?"

Saguru sighed and told the truth, not seeing the point in hiding it from her when she'd only weasel it out of him in thirty seconds or less.

"I forbid it!" his stand-in mother bellowed and proceeded to chew him out for being so reckless.

He then explained the necessity of the nighttime excursion and made puppy-dog eyes at her.

It didn't work so well the first time, but after a few rounds of begging and scolding and reasoning with, Baaya approved the fieldtrip as long as she went along as a chaperon.

"Put on a scarf, Saguru. It's cold out there," the woman of the house insisted before she would allow them to leave.

"Yes, Baaya," Saguru sighed, doing as he was told.

000

Fifty-five minutes later they were standing on the roof of the first building. Well, Kaito was standing. Saguru had collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath.

"Are you _that_ out of shape?" Kaito chuckled, taking a look around.

Saguru wanted to make a snide comment about seeing _him_ climb fifty-plus flights of fire escape, but air was too precious a thing to waste on bickering.

Kaito just laughed and carried out his own investigation.

"Anything…l-look…famil-liar?" Saguru wheezed after the apparition had been at it for a while.

"A little bit, but not really. It's hard to tell, but…maybe after I see the other one?" Kaito smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. More stairs."

"Holy Mary, mother of God, please help me," Saguru begged, peeling himself up off of the floor.

His legs felt like jelly, and they supported him about as well.

Kaito tried not to laugh as his friend fell flat on his face. _Tried_.

000

Once they made it down one building, across town, and up another, it was just past midnight.

Saguru had to crawl the last three flights, but they made it to the top, and their efforts were well worth it.

"This is it," Kaito stated with certainty. "I was flying this way when Snake shot me down. He was standing over there." Kaito pointed to the roof access door. "I landed here," Kaito jabbered on, dashing to the center of the roof and looking around some more. "I backed up all the way to here before he got on top of me and forced that pill down my throat," the magician explained sadly, retracing his final steps. "Here. This is it, Hakuba."

"G-Good," the detective panted, limping to his companion's side. "Now all we have to do…is…is find some proof that you were here. A bullet casing, fibers, blood…something…anything to get the police to come check it out."

"They'll probably find blood stains if they do that luminol test thing. Oh! Can they do that gunpowder test thing too? Snake's not stupid enough to leave a casing behind, but there's nothing he could do about gunpowder residue," Kaito chattered excitedly.

"Or, maybe we'll get extremely lucky and discover that your murder was caught on film," Saguru chuckled, pointing to an adjacent rooftop with a security camera mounted on top of the roof access door.

"Sweet. We'll have to come back and ask for the tapes tomorrow, but…this is a really big break, isn't it?" Kaito chuckled gleefully. "I've wanted to get this guy for my father's murder for…like…forever, and now…well, it's not exactly my father's murder, but…we're actually gonna get him, aren't we?"

"Yes, we'll get him, Kuroba, but it may be a little difficult to obtain those tapes without a warrant. I may be the Superintendent's son, but I, myself, am not a cop. I don't have the authority to demand to see those tapes," Saguru tried to break the news to his friend gently.

"So? Ask Daddy for a favor, then." Kaito easily shrugged it off. "We can't convince the police of anything until there's evidence, but we can't get the evidence unless we have police help. We _need_ those tapes, Hakuba. I don't care what you have to do to get them."

"And neither do I," Saguru agreed with a decisive nod. "Tomorrow, Kuroba, I swear we'll get those tapes and get the police to start an investigation. We won't fail."

Kaito's smile positively glowed. "Un, but, for now, let's go home and let you get some sleep. You look half dead."

000

Kaito found himself, oddly enough, in hell. Well, hell in the form of an exquisite banquet hall, lit with candelabras, and why the hell was he wearing his Kid outfit?

This certainly qualified as one of Hakuba's more exotic dreams. Usually they took place in the detective's room or at school or some other everyday place. Banquet hall in some European castle was definitely changing it up.

"Please. Be my guest," a familiar British voice intoned. "Take a seat."

Kuroba whipped around and found Hakuba himself sitting at the head of the table that was heavily laden with breads, meats, soups, pastries, and other goodies that Kaito hadn't been able to eat in what felt like eons.

"Hey, Hakuba. Sorry to crash your dream again, but I was bored." Kaito smiled sheepishly, picking a chair and taking a seat. "Not much for the dead to do at night. What's up with the costume?"

The former kaitou wasn't the only one dressed up. The detective was decked out in a prince's outfit straight out of a fantasy novel.

"I thought I'd dress for the occasion. It's not often that we get to dine together like this."

Kaito blinked. "Dine?"

"Yes. Help yourself. I've had all of your favorites prepared." Hakuba indicated the spread.

"Seriously? I don't mind if I do." The intruder held his breath and picked up a piece of tempura squid. He took a bite and nearly started singing hallelujah because he could actually taste the food.

Hakuba watched with a fond, amused smirk while Kuroba ate his fill.

Once the deceased was finished, he looked up and realized that the backdrop had changed.

It was now a stormy night, and they were standing in a large stone corridor with tall, arching doors and equally fancy windows.

"Come," Hakuba commanded softly, holding out his hand.

Kaito raised an eyebrow at his host. "Sorry, Buddy, but we're not five years old anymore, so I'm not holding your hand. Maybe if you were scared, but, right now, it would just be too gay."

Prince Hakuba rolled his eyes and smirked again as he took both of Kaito's hands in his own. "Don't play hard-to-get, Dove."

Kaito gave a little jump and tore his hands away. "Dove? Hey, Hakuba, you know it's _me_, don't you? It's _Kuroba_, not your little dream boyfriend."

"Sometimes you talk too much," the lord of the castle chuckled, pinning his guest up against one of the massive wooden doors and leaning in for the kiss.

"Whoa. Hey. No. I let this happen once out of curiosity 'cause I was feeling all vulnerable and stuff, but I'm not about to make fooling around with you in your dreams a habit, Hakuba. I'm sorry. It was wrong, and that was my fault, but it was a one-time deal, so let go," Kaito argued as he struggled with his would-be lover.

"Kai, you can be such a tease sometimes," Hakuba chuckled, making another grab for the magician.

"Geez…this isn't a lucid dream, is it?" Kaito sighed, dodging his rival. "You're out cold, and I'm tangoing with your subconscious, aren't I?"

"Kaito, am I doing something wrong?" Hakuba softly inquired, a hurt look growing on his face.

"No. I am," the thief admitted sheepishly, patting his friend on the shoulder. "I shouldn't be in here. You're just fine, so keep doing what you're doing. Sweet dreams, Hakuba. I'll see you in the morning."

000

"Soooo…have any interesting dreams last night?" Kaito hummed, popping his head up over the back of the couch when he heard his host rousing.

"Good morning, Kuroba," Saguru replied with a smile, thinking that waking up to his crush's greetings wasn't a half-bad way of doing things. "I had a dream where Sherlock Holmes let me join him on an investigation. I also had a dream where I was a prince, but all the riches and power of the land couldn't gain me true happiness. It reminded me a little bit of _Beauty and the Beast_."

"I wasn't there, was I?" Kaito bit his lip while he waited in suspense (since he couldn't really hold his breath). "There wasn't a banquet or anything, was there?"

"You know, I really don't remember. I think there was a musical number, though." Saguru scrunched up his face in distaste. Musical dreams were always the worst. He really couldn't sing…at least, _he_ didn't think so.

"Hm." Kaito made a little noise of interest as he lowered his head back down onto the couch where the other teen couldn't see him. He bit his lip again and got up the nerve to ask a question that had been poking at him for a while now, ever since he'd first seen the dream Kaito, actually. "Hey, Hakuba?"

"Yes?" the detective acknowledged the apparition as he straightened his bedding and set about picking out his outfit for the day.

"In your dreams, do you ever…you know…sleep with m—your boyfriend?"

"Wh?!" the Brit squealed. He then cleared his throat and tried again, "Excuse me. What?"

"I said," Kaito summoned his courage again.

"I heard what you said!" Hakuba croaked. There were more throat-clearing noises. "You…you want to know if my boyfriend and I ever…ever make love?"

"Y-Yeah?" It had just been a whim. A nagging whim, but a whim. He'd never imagined it would get so awkward, though, looking back, he should have expected as much.

Saguru sighed, cheeks turning the color of watermelon. "N-No. I mean, we kiss and cuddle and caress, but…making out in swimsuits is the closest we've ever come to making love," the detective confessed. "I'd like to…maybe eventually, but…even in my dreams I'm too self-conscious. …Besides…I wouldn't even know where to start."

"It's not that hard," Kaito chuckled, sitting up and hanging over the back of the couch.

Saguru blushed. "Speaking from…experience?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," the tease sniggered. "I thought gentlemen didn't kiss and tell."

"They d-don't," Hakuba snorted. "but that doesn't mean they can't ask and listen…. And as a matter of fact, I _would_ like to know. Problem?" Saguru found it was a lot easier to stand up to Kuroba when he had his back turned to his rival.

"Easy," Kaito chuckled sheepishly. "I was just playing. Sorry, Hakuba. Anyway…sadly, no. I'm kinda married to my job, so I don't have a lot of time for dating. You know, looking back, maybe I should have taken some of Kid's fans up on their offers."

"You're not that kind of person," Saguru whispered.

"You don't know that." Kaito shrugged.

The detective deposited his clothes on his bed and turned to look his friend right in the eye. "No, but it's what I believe. Allow me to sound out of character for a minute, but sometimes you don't have to have evidence."

Kaito smirked. "You're right; I would never take advantage of someone like that…. And all I know about making love, I learned from picture books. You can have them, if you want. You've got more use for them than I do now that I'm worm bait, and who knows? They may give you some idea about where to start."

"N-No thank you, Kuroba," Hakuba stuttered, trying to find something to distract him. "That's very generous of you, but I'm afraid I can't have dirty magazines lying about; Baaya insists upon cleaning my room no matter how hard I endeavor to make her let me do it myself."

"You're a teenage boy." Kaito rolled his eyes. "Dirty magazines are a right, not a privilege. It's, like, practically illegal for her to keep you from looking at pictures of naked women."

"You forget that some of us are not as interested in looking at naked women as others," Saguru snickered.

Kaito blinked, his mouth forming a little "oh." He bit his lip and shrugged. "They make magazines with pictures of naked men too."

"I'm going to take a shower, Kuroba." Hakuba shook his head.

"Have fun!" the ghost returned teasingly.

"Kuroba, you don't have to say it like that; there's nothing fun about taking a bath," his host sighed.

"Thousands of Japanese people disagree with you." The instigator smirked.

"Oh, go bother Baaya." Saguru gave another sigh of resignation.

000

"Good morning, Bocchama," his caretaker greeted upon his arrival in the kitchen.

"Hey, Hakuba." Kuroba gave him a salute from where he sat on one of the stools around the island. "Did you have a nice shower?"

"Good morning, Baaya." The detective ignored the ghost. "How are you?"

"Fine, Saguru. Kuroba-kun and I were just chatting about England." Baaya set down a plate of Belgian waffles with a smile.

"Oh? And, pray, how were you doing that?" Saguru took a seat at the kitchen table, giving his stand-in mother and his friend a curious glance.

Baaya set a smaller plate with a little chunk of waffle down in front of Kaito and stuck two toothpicks straight up into it. "The usual way, though Kuroba-kun's part of the conversation must be tedious for him."

"Yep, but it's cool." Kaito shrugged as he moved a little five yen coin around a sheet of paper with his finger. "Could you tell her to give me a one yen coin instead, Hakuba? It'd be easier for me, since it's lighter."

Saguru blinked, taking a better look at the piece of paper. It had hiragana and katakana symbols along with what appeared to be common phrases written on it. "It's like a Ouija board."

"Never mind. I'll ask her myself," Kaito sighed, moving around the coin. "Hey, Baaya, could I have one yen?"

"Of course, Dear." The woman of the house produced a light, one yen piece from her pocket after she finished reading. "Enjoy the waffle."

Kaito moved the new coin to the prewritten phrase, "Thank you!"

"How long have you two been conversing?" Saguru asked as he started his breakfast.

"A few days after I moved in." Kaito shrugged.

It looked like he was exerting a great amount of effort to try to pick up his little scrap of waffle.

"I think I saw it move a bit." Baaya tried to be encouraging.

Kaito worked at it through most of breakfast, but he made little progress.

"You'll get it next time, Sweetheart," Baaya assured.

Kaito sighed, moving his one yen piece back to, "Thank you".

"Hey, Hakuba?" the houseguest called, lifting his head off of the countertop.

"Yes, Kuroba?" Saguru paused, lowering his fork.

"I just realized something. You know those tapes that were going to prove that Snake offed me?"

"Yes?"

"They're not going to show Kuroba Kaito getting murdered; they're going to show the Kaitou Kid," the spirit informed him softly.

Saguru blinked twice. "That's right. You took off on your glider as Kid, and then Snake shot you down. You were poisoned and killed as Kid, but _Kuroba Kaito's_ body was the one that turned up in the bay." He set his fork down and quickly got to his feet. He remembered at the last minute to throw a "Breakfast was delicious, Baaya! Thank you!" over his shoulder before darting up the stairs and rushing to pull up files on his laptop.

Kuroba spelled out a similar message on his make-shift Ouija board before following.

"I knew there was something strange about it," the detective was muttering to himself. "His pants didn't have a bullet hole, and there wasn't nearly enough blood on the clothes. The clothes must have been changed post mortem, but why?"

He turned to Kaito and sighed. "You don't happen to remember him changing your clothes, do you?"

"Ya know, I'm really glad that I don't remember; it would only make that night even more traumatic. I mean, I was already murdered and thrown into the bay with those…those…f-f-f—"

"—Finny things?" Hakuba suggested, smiling fondly at the object of his affections.

"Yeah." Kaito shivered, taking a seat on the couch. "F-Finny things."

The teenage sleuth looked back at his files and sighed. "So…I suppose we could try to get footage from the roof cameras and see if the ones inside the building have anything we can use. Frankly, I think your syndicate would be smart enough to hack the ones inside the building if they were going to be taking a body out for disposal that way, but we may be able to get something from traffic cams and other security cameras lining the route from the building to the bay where he…dumped you."

Both boys jumped at the sound of the pencil in Hakuba's hand snapping.

Saguru took a deep breath and tried to get his blinding rage under wraps. He _so_ wanted to get this guy _and_ that bloody organization.

"We may even be able to get plate numbers and track down the vehicle. Even if it turns out to be stolen, we could possibly see if we could track it back to their hideout or at least tack another crime onto their rap sheet."

He paused before shutting his computer and turning to face his friend. "Kuroba…we have to go see your mother. Once the police see the concrete proof that you're Kid, they'll be all over her, asking questions, tearing your house apart…we have to warn her before going any further with the investigation."

Kaito nodded, getting to his feet. "Just warning you ahead of time, she's stubborn. Dad was actually pretty laid back; I got all of my personality from her."

"Oh, joy," Saguru sighed, grabbing his jacket and informing Baaya before heading out.

…

($_$)

Mikau: Looking back, that's a lot of stairs to go up in that amount of time. I guess Kaito only thinks Hakuba's slow because the ghost doesn't have to breathe. Anyway, today there was a celebration lunch at my church where my friend volunteered me to speak about this six-week study we had been doing. I was really nervous, but everyone said I'd done a really good job afterwards. I'm just glad I didn't stutter; I don't consider myself a public speaker, but other people seem to. I'm kind of glad that he encouraged me to do it, though. On the downside, there weren't a lot of vegetarian-friendly options at the lunch, so I had to eat green beans. I really hate green beans, but I ate them without complaining. Geez, I kind of sound like a little kid, don't I? Well, anyway, thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear what you thought about the chapter/story thus far. Take care, guys!


	5. Blind Rage&Bloodlust Condemning Evidence

Mikau: Hello everyone! Thanks for dropping by once again. It's been a pretty busy week for me, but I've got a day off tomorrow! …and Pilates class. Anyway, I want to thank Athie Lestrade, Sirastar, Shara Raizel, and reviewer74 for your reviews for last chapter. Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I would probably be caught up on the series. As it stands, there are probably one hundred chapters and three hundred episodes I've missed. It's hard to catch up because I've tuned in here and there throughout the years, so I'm not sure which episodes and chapters I've missed. -.-

….

Blind Rage and Bloodlust

(or: The Condemning Evidence)

"I'm a classmate of your son's, come to offer my condolences. My name is—"

"—I _know_ who you are," Chikage hissed, cutting off the blonde's self-introduction. "You're that pesky British brat that's always getting in Kid's way."

"Uh…y-yes. That would be me," Saguru gulped. "Um…I brought a gift. I hope you like—"

"—Just come in," Chikage snapped, snatching the parcel out of Saguru's hands. "Did you want tea?"

"N-No. No thank you. I'm fine," Hakuba politely declined the first time as was expected.

Strangely enough, there was no second, third, or even fourth offer. Maybe she was assuming that he wasn't familiar with the Japanese custom since he looked so…unique.

"I'm really sorry, Hakuba." Kaito bowed sheepishly, embarrassed by his mother's behavior. "She's normally not like this at all. Usually she'd usher you in and stuff you full of cookies before you could say, 'Platypus.' …She blames herself for my death."

Saguru gave a small nod of acknowledgement as he took a seat on the couch. "Mrs. Kuroba, I'm terribly sorry for your loss, and I know this probably isn't the best time, but I've come here today to warn you."

"Warn me?" Chikage snorted, sinking down into the armchair across the coffee table from her guest.

"Yes, Madame. I don't want to take up too much of your time, so I'll be brief, but…I know what happened to your son…how he was killed and by whom. I'm investigating the case, and I believe I'm about to uncover critical evidence that will lead to the capture of the murderer and the criminal syndicate that Kid was after."

Saguru carefully studied his hostess's face for any minute change or sign of recognition.

Chikage's expression remained unaltered; poker face ran in the family.

"Unfortunately, this evidence is rather…condemning on your son's part as well." Saguru bit his lip.

"Oh, you mean you think that you're finally going to prove that Kaito was Kid?" Chikage scoffed. "You just like adding insult to injury, don't you? Kaito told me about how you were always so desperate to frame him. Can't you just let your obsession die with him?"

"I'm terribly sorry, Kuroba-san, to pour salt in your wounds when you're already going through so much, but I can assure you that this is not about me or even Kuroba-kun being the Kaitou Kid. This is a matter of your safety," Saguru tried his best to placate the grieving mother. "Kuroba-kun's true identity will be revealed, and—"

"—Get out!" Chikage screeched, snapping like a slingshot to her feet. "I won't hear any more of this nonsense. My son was not a criminal, and I don't have to sit here in my own home and listen to you calling him one until you have some solid proof!"

"Geez, Mom," Kaito sighed. "Just listen to him!"

After realizing that his mother couldn't hear his pleas, the magician turned to his friend. "Hakuba, follow me. We'll show her some proof."

Saguru groaned, but followed the apparition up to the second floor. "Please pardon the intrusion, Madame. It's for your own good."

"Where are you going?!" Chikage squealed, storming after the teens. "You're not allowed up there! Leave at once, or I'm calling the police."

"Lot of good it would do you; my father's the Superintendent," Saguru sighed, following Kaito through the last door on the left and into his room.

"Over here." The magician pointed to the portrait of what must have been his father at twenty-something. "Push the painting."

The detective blinked, but did what he was told.

Nothing happened.

"Get away from there!" Chikage carried on. "This is my son's room; get out!"

"Hmm." Kaito and Saguru hummed in unison.

"Just what were you expecting to happen?" the surviving member of the Kuroba family scoffed.

"I wasn't really expecting anything in particular," Saguru sighed. "You're going to think I'm nutters, but your son's ghost has been haunting me, and we're working together to bust the organization that he and your husband had been fighting as Kid and Kaitou 1412 respectively. We've got a great lead, but the evidence I spoke of earlier will reveal Kid's true identity. We came to warn you ahead of time because your house will be crawling with cops as soon as they find out, and there is the chance that the organization baddies could come after you too.

"Unfortunately, you weren't listening to me before, so Kuroba-kun said he'd show us some proof and led us up to his room. He told me to press on the painting, and I did so with blind faith. That's all I know, Mrs. Kuroba. These past couple of weeks have been a little crazy for me, so I don't know exactly what to expect anymore."

"It's supposed to be a door into the Kid Cave," Kaito grumbled, glaring at the photo.

"A door?" Saguru turned to his partner and asked, not really caring if the woman who would never be his mother-in-law thought he was a bit touched in the head. "Maybe it's got some kind of fingerprint scanner," he suggested. "Wouldn't want just anyone to be able to get in. Do you think your mum's prints would work?"

Kaito shrugged.

Chikage gapped incredulously. "K-Kaito's here?"

"Yes. Right here." Hakuba nodded to his right. "He says, 'Hey, Mom. Be nice to my friend.'"

"He's a sweetheart," Kaito added.

Saguru didn't translate.

"Say it," the magician urged.

"Kuroba, I'm not saying that," Saguru wouldn't budge.

"Say it, or I start reaching my ghostly hand through you," the apparition threatened.

"He also says, 'He's a sweetheart.' Are you happy, Kuroba?" The Englishman blushed the color of Kaito's favorite shade of lipstick.

"Yep." Kaito pressed his hand to his father's portrait and concentrated on making it solid.

The door opened.

"Holy…Kuroba, you have a bloody car!" the detective squeaked.

"Proof enough for ya?" the thief chuckled. "Welcome to the Kid Cave. You should feel special; you're the only one I've ever let in here."

"Wow. Thank you, Kuroba; I'm honored, and, yes, this should be enough evidence." Saguru fought back a grin as he began to look around.

"Kaito?" Chikage called out as she stepped into her husband's lair.

"Hey, Hakuba? Could you grab a sheet of paper off of the desk and write out the alphabet for me?" Kaito asked with tired, pleading eyes. "And can I borrow a yen?"

"Of course, Kuroba."

The mother and child conversed via Ouija board for nearly an hour before Chikage started to pack up for her escape.

Saguru tried to remain in the background, being as unobtrusive as possible in order to give them their space. He _was_ the one intruding here, after all.

"Hakuba-kun?" Chikage called out to him.

"Y-Yes, Kuroba-san?" Saguru stood up with a jolt.

"I have to get ready to go. I'll be out in about two or three hours, so you two can head to pick up the tapes shortly after you leave here, but…I just wanted to apologize for earlier. I also wanted to thank you for looking after my boy and sticking your neck out to help complete my husband and son's mission. And…thank you for helping me find closure," she said with a serene smile.

"I'm only too happy to help, Madame," the sleuth responded honestly.

"Before I go, there are some things that Kaito wanted you to have. Actually, you can see him; he can show you what they are. Farewell, Hakuba-kun, and good luck with my son. I know what a handful he can be." She laughed as she turned to where she had left her boy. "Goodbye, Sweetheart. Come and visit me sometime; you know where to find me."

"Bye, Mom." Kaito smiled sadly and waved, even though he knew she couldn't see him. He sighed and turned to Saguru. "Come on. The police are going to search this place high and low, and I've got some straightening to do before then. Could you help a fellow out?"

"Of course," Saguru chuckled, pulling out a pair of gloves.

000

They left an hour later with a bag full of various things Kuroba didn't want the police going through and an assortment of books and trinkets Kaito had wanted Hakuba to have.

"I suppose there's no fear of them finding the Kid Cave, though, if the entrance is fingerprint locked," Saguru sighed as they made their way to a café for lunch.

"Yeah. It makes me feel a lot better now that I know no one will be able to mess with my dad's stuff." Kaito fell in step beside the living half of their duo.

"I'm still wondering how he got that car in there," Hakuba muttered under his breath.

"Dude, you can have the car, if you want. No use to me now," Kaito chuckled.

"It's alright," Saguru sighed with a little shrug of his right shoulder. "It's more the fact that your father left you a car. I could buy my own car if I wanted, but…my father's never given me anything that cool. …Besides, I have no idea how I'd go about getting it out of the Kid Cave."

"Are you…not very close with your father?" Kaito asked hesitantly.

"I'm not very close to anyone." Saguru pretended to be distracted by an advertisement posted on a shop window.

"You know, if you marry Aoko, you could start your own family. Then you'd have plenty of people to be close to," Kaito put in a shameless plug.

"You're really serious about this Aoko and me dating thing, aren't you?"

"Yeah. What? Did you think I was kidding?" Kaito gave a small snort.

"A little bit," Hakuba replied honestly.

"Well, I wasn't," the magician replied in all seriousness. "Before I can move on, I want to be sure that my two most important people are taken care of, and I think you two will do a good job of taking care of each other."

Saguru stopped dead in his tracks, mouth dropping open. "I'm your…?"

Kaito smiled, reaching up to tousle his friend's hair. "Come on. You're hungry; let's go get you some lunch."

Saguru just nodded and followed.

000

Right around three o'clock the boys headed to the police headquarters and presented their evidence.

Saguru explained how he had found the scene of the crime by studying the particulates on Kaito's skin, clothing, and under his fingernails.

This led the police to the rooftop where they discovered Kaito's phone with a bullet through it.

Saguru next pointed out the surveillance cameras, and the tapes were procured.

"I don't want you to watch," Kaito whispered, tugging on Saguru's sleeve as he was about to enter the viewing room.

"I'll be fine, Kuroba," Saguru replied as quietly as he could so that the other officers didn't hear. "I'm a detective; this is my job…. Besides, I've probably seen much, much worse."

"Yeah, but none of it was personal," the deceased muttered, following his detective through the double doors.

"It will be fine," Saguru assured again.

000

The video provided ample evidence. Snake entered about an hour before the murder itself, and fifteen minutes later on the tape an additional two men joined the main villain.

They were both tall, wearing what looked like black trench coats and fedoras, though the picture quality wasn't the best, and it was dark, so it could be possible that their clothing was a dark charcoal grey instead. The broader thug sported mirrored shades, while the other had long, silvery-blonde hair.

"I don't recognize those goons, though, usually Snake does have a bunch of cronies in trench coats with him…. They don't really do much, though, and their aim's atrocious," Kaito commented as the video played.

"Perhaps they're other operatives from the evil syndicate," Hakuba muttered under his breath as he watched the exchange.

The men conversed with Snake for a while, seemingly arguing until the blonde pulled out a small rectangular box and handed it to the mustachioed gunman.

Snake opened it, revealing the contents to be nearly a dozen red and white capsules.

"That's the poison," Kaito whispered.

The men in black (or perhaps charcoal grey) left, and the police fast forwarded until they came to the main act.

Snake fired his pistol into the sky, and down came the Kaitou Kid.

Kid slowly recovered from the crash, freeing himself from his wrecked hang glider and struggling to his feet. He swayed as he got out his card gun, eventually having to prop himself up against the wall to remain upright.

Snake shot the gun out of Kid's hand, and it flew to the ground, shattering upon impact.

Kid too was knocked over by the force of the bullet, and he cringed as he fought to scoot back and away from his attacker.

Snake was saying something, and Kid spit something back, but there was no audio.

Snake slowly approached as Kid riffled through his coat for something, anything that would help him escape.

He came upon his phone—Kaito's phone. The same one that they had found an hour or so earlier—and managed to push some buttons before Snake shot that out of his hand as well.

Snake descended upon Kid, and they began to struggle.

The monocle and top hat came off, and suddenly it was Kaito fighting for his life on screen.

Some of the officers gasped softly, utterly astounded to be seeing a young boy behind the mask of the great phantom thief.

In the "empty" seat next to him, Kaito reached out and grabbed Saguru's hand.

He squeezed back, unsure who was supposed to be comforted by the gesture.

The Kaito in the film hit and bit and kicked for all that he was worth, but Snake was stronger.

He grabbed Kaito by the throat and forced the poison capsule into his mouth.

Kaito flailed for a minute or so longer, but then he fell still.

Snake took out his phone, and a cleanup crew arrived not ten minutes later. They got rid of the blood, the bullet casings, Kid's clothing—everything.

Kaito, in his own street clothes, was put into a laundry sack and taken away by the cleaners while the large amethyst he had had in his possession as Kid was given to Snake.

000

The Kaitou Kid Taskforce was called in and given the news; they looked to their leader for some indication or how to act, but Nakamori-keibu said nothing.

He stared straight ahead and nodded sadly. He had known somewhere deep inside that Toichi was dead and that it had been Kaito carrying on their cat and mouse game, but now he was forced to face the facts and accept reality.

"So, what, detective brat?" he growled. "Ya gonna say 'I told ya so,' or something?"

"No," Saguru whispered, shaking his head sadly. "You have no idea just how much I would give to have been wrong, Inspector."

They moved to a conference room, and Detective Hakuba debriefed the taskforce and the officers on Kaito's case, telling them about what he had uncovered about the syndicate and Kid's mission.

One of the officers gave Saguru (and Kaito by default) a ride home, and they arrived just in time to catch the six o'clock news. It looked like there hadn't yet been a leak about Kid's true identity, but Saguru suspected that it would come any day now. Even though it was an extremely classified case, it was only a matter of time before somebody blabbed a little bit and it ended up on the news.

Dinner was a quiet, solemn affair.

Baaya sensed the foreboding atmosphere and kindly refrained from asking about it. Instead, she chatted about her day, providing neutral background noise in place of the grave silence.

After twenty minutes of pushing his food around on his plate, Saguru finally pushed the plate away and sighed. "Baaya, I think I'm going to retire for the night. Thank you for dinner."

"Good night, Bocchama. Sleep well," his caretaker replied softly, giving his forearm a gentle pat.

Kaito followed behind as quiet as a ghost, sitting down and curling into a ball on the couch while his friend got out his laptop and other case-related notebooks and papers.

"Hakuba?" he called, startling the detective.

It was then that Saguru realized how long it had been since his companion had spoken.

"Yes, Kuroba?"

"Hakuba, let's watch a movie," Kaito proposed with a carefully blank expression—poker face at its finest.

Saguru closed his computer and stowed all of his papers and files inside his desk drawer. "Was watching yourself get killed very traumatizing?"

"About as traumatizing as watching your own autopsy…but I'm over it. That's not what I'm upset about," the spirit responded with an indifferent shrug.

"Oh?"

"It's your face. Your face when we were watching the tape was really scary, Hakuba. You were looking at Snake like you'd fill him full of lead without a second thought, given half the chance."

Saguru bit his lip, buying time while he decided whether to tell the truth, lie, or say nothing. "Given the opportunity, I'm not sure that I could, but I'd very much like to."

"Don't," Kaito whispered. "I wouldn't want you to get blood on your hands for me."

Saguru hesitated again. "It wouldn't exactly be _for_; it would be _because of_ you. I wouldn't be avenging you; I'd be getting my own revenge. That monster stole something very precious from me, and right now I can't decide whether putting an entire magazine of bullets through his skull or seeing him rot behind bars would make me feel better."

"Hmm," Kaito made a thoughtful little noise. "You know, on the outside you seem fairly pure and innocent, but you've really got some dark places in that brilliant mind of yours, don't you?"

"Sorry to disappoint," Hakuba muttered, turning back around and fiddling with some papers.

"I'm not disappointed; I'm interested," Kaito assured with a chuckle. "_I_ can be pretty dark at times too. I think it's good to have layers."

"Hmm," Saguru hummed with a thoughtful nod. He then realized that his crush had just called him brilliant and said that he found Saguru interesting. "Hmm. What kind of movie did you have in mind?"

"Dog movie," Kuroba replied without missing a beat.

Saguru pursed his lips and frowned. "I don't really feel like crying my eyes out at the moment."

"Comedy then. Something absolutely ridiculous," Kaito compromised.

"I have something, but it's in English." Hakuba glanced at his shelf of DVDs, trying to locate the film he was thinking of.

"It's fine; I speak English well enough to watch a movie," Kuroba assured.

"Are you sure?" Saguru stifled a laugh. "Case and point: 'Redizu ando gentarumen.'"

"Okay, so my accent sucks, but I read, write, and understand enough to be able to compose heist notes. I can watch a movie in English, Hakuba," Kaito snorted playfully.

The thief had a point.

"So you do. Have you ever heard of Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail?"

000

A few hours later, Kaito had a new favorite movie, and Saguru was absolutely exhausted. That day had taken a lot out of him, so he turned in early without working on the case any further.

Kaito snuck off to have a chat with Nakamori while Saguru got ready for bed, but the rest of the night he remained by his rival's side, fighting off nightmares as he saw them coming.

The imp switched off the alarm clock and let his host sleep for as long as he would.

It was about nine-thirty when the detective finally came around, and he was not happy when he realized that he had over-slept.

"You needed the extra rest." Kaito shrugged, a lopsided grin on his lips. "You've got a text, by the way."

"Text?" Saguru yawned as he climbed out of bed and prepared for the day. "Oh. It's from that hot-headed, dim-witted…it's from Hattori Heiji."

"Was that disdain and contempt that I just heard in your voice?" Kaito tittered, taking up his perch on the arm of the couch.

"…No," Saguru lied.

Kaito smirked harder. "Is there a story behind your disdain and contempt for Hattori Heiji?"

"…No," the sleuth lied again, cheeks turning a faint salmon color. He really didn't want to get into the events that transpired on that accursed island. To have been outsmarted…it still made his face burn in shame.

"I think somebody's got a grudge." Kuroba just kept picking at the subject. "Does someone have another rival? Are you double-timing me, Hakuba? What? Is he more annoying than me or something? What's he got that I don't?"

"Just a heartbeat, as far as I can tell," Saguru snorted softly. "A corporal form, maybe more money, but no, Kuroba, no one will ever be more annoying than you. No one can take that place in my heart away from you."

"Aww…how sweet. I'm blushing," Kaito snickered, nearly falling from his place on the couch arm. "So what's Mr. Medium Height, Dark, and Average Looks want?"

Saguru blinked. It had flowed so naturally off of that silver tongue that the detective was having a hard time believing that Kuroba had made it up on the spot. "Do you…usually refer to him like that?"

"Sometimes he's Mr. Accent, Dark, and Kendo. Sometimes it's accent, dark, and temper tantrum." Kaito shrugged.

"And…who am I?" Saguru bit his lip, not sure if he wanted to know.

"Tall, Blonde, and British when I'm feeling neutral; Know-It-All, Cute, and Snarky when I'm not."

"Cute?" Saguru's cheeks went vermillion.

"Not as in, 'Oh, look at the cute puppy!' It's more like, 'Oh, look. He's flustered; how cute." The way Kuroba said it, it sounded more like someone chuckling as they watched a mouse run around a maze looking for cheese.

"Hmm." Somehow it was less amusing now.

"Oh, come on, Hakuba. Lighten up. I like your 'I can't believe the Kaitou freaking Kid turned my hair bloody orange again.' face," Kaito snickered. "…So why is Hattori Heiji texting you, if you two don't get along? Hm?"

Saguru rolled his eyes and opened the message. "I was merely consulting him as a fellow detective on any mysterious possible poisoning cases and this evil organization. It's called networking; sometimes you have to talk to people you don't like for the greater good."

"Any luck?" Kaito asked as he stretched, arching his back like a cat before changing positions.

"He says that we might try Kudo Shinichi. He should be of help if, one, we can find him, and, two, he's willing to share information. Hattori says he'll contact Kudo-kun for us. I suppose we'll just have to wait to hear back, but Hattori was more help than I thought he would be."

"Kudo Shinichi?" Kaito mumbled.

"Yes. You're acquaintances, aren't you?" Saguru replied without interest as he went about his morning routine.

"Oh my god. Lucky bastard!" Kaito snorted. "I could never figure it out before, but that son of a gun…man, that must be how it works…"

"Um…may I take part in this conversation as well, Kuroba?" Hakuba raised an eyebrow at the ghost.

"Hakuba!" Kaito suddenly snapped out of his monologue and stared, bright-eyed, at the detective. "We're going to visit the Mouri Detective Agency!"

"We are?" Saguru was having trouble connecting the dots, and it was more than a little frustrating.

"Yeah, now hurry up and get dressed!"

….

_^,^ _"Hohoho!"

Mikau: This emot looks extremely pleased with itself. I can just imagine it laughing like Akako. Tuesday night I worked late, and then Wednesday morning I had to get up at 5:45 to be at work again. We were setting up the big Christmas display, and it took all five of us about thirteen hours to get it done. I only worked ten of those hours, but still…. It's been a tiresome last couple of days. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. There should be about two more and an epilogue, I think. Take care, and have a great week!


	6. Break in the Case (or: Progress)

Mikau: Hey everyone! It's good to be back! Did everyone that celebrates Thanksgiving have a good one? I got up at 4:30 AM to go with my church to a church downtown to serve breakfast to the community there. We fed about 150 people, and there were 100 volunteers there. Needless to say, there really wasn't enough work for all of us, so a good deal of the time I spent talking with some friends. I got to hang out with my crush and his sister. It was fun, but we were all sooo tired. On a different note, thanks so much to Shara Raizel, Sirastar, Minervana1, Athie Lestrade, and Raifuujin for your reviews. On with the story!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I think I'd do an episode where Mouri has to solve a case on his own. It'd be interesting.

….

A Break in the Case (or: Progression)

"I know it will be a little time consuming since you've had so many cases, but if you wouldn't mind reviewing them for any strange or suspicious ones that could have any link to the organization I've described to you, I'd be eternally grateful," Hakuba groveled tastefully. "Or, if you wouldn't mind me looking through your records, I could always just do it myself."

Kaito had to hand it to the blonde, he would do whatever was necessary to get the information they needed.

Mouri Kogoro snorted, blowing cigarette smoke out his nose.

Saguru tried his very best not to look disgusted. He couldn't figure out for the life of him how the vice-ridden, plebian of a man before him solved so many puzzling cases on a weekly basis.

"Knock yourself out, kid," Mouri laughed. "I'll email the files to you later, but I'm kind of busy at the moment, if you wouldn't mind beating it. Yoko-chan's going to be on a guest panel on a show in ten minutes."

"Dad!" Mouri Ran shrieked in abject horror. "Don't be rude! I'm so sorry about him, Hakuba-kun."

Saguru pretended not to hear the part she whispered to her father about him being the Superintendent's son and having influence.

Mouri made a pathetic apology which Saguru accepted with grace, but he made excuses and politely declined Ran's offer of more tea.

Kaito was getting fidgety, and it was obviously time to go.

They were getting nowhere.

"I had hoped to learn something more from the great Mouri Kogoro," Saguru muttered as they descended the staircase down to the street. "Bloody waste of a trip to Beika. Maybe we should drop by Division One and see if they've got any news for us, just so we have something to show for our trouble."

"We didn't come here to see Old Man Mouri," Kaito chuckled, stepping to the side and leaning against the café below the detective agency. It looked like he was planning on being there a while.

"We didn't?" Saguru had been lost this entire morning.

"Nope. Give him five minutes to make up an excuse to go out," Kaito muttered, shutting his eyes and enjoying the sun's rays on his translucent skin.

"I'm sorry, who?" Saguru had been in the dark all morning, and it had ceased to be fun several hours ago.

"You!" Edogawa Conan squeaked as he came tearing down the steps and around the corner. "You're the Kaitou Kid!"

"Hey, Tantei-kun," Kaito chuckled, adopting his suave, alter ego's mannerisms.

"What are you doing with him?!" the pipsqueak continued to yelp like a Chihuahua as he indicated Hakuba.

"You can _see_ him?!" Now it was Saguru's turn to squawk.

"Of course I can!" the pint-sized detective snorted indignantly. "It's not like he's invisible; he's standing right there!"

"Inside voice, Tantei-kun," Kid purred, and it sounded like velvet.

Little tingles raced up Saguru's spine.

"Is there somewhere we can go to talk…Meitantei-san? I imagine your house is not an option, but don't you have a neighbor that you visit frequently?" Kid smirked.

Conan glowered. "Just how much does _he_ know?" the four-eyed sleuth muttered, indicating Hakuba yet again.

"Only what I've told him." Kid shrugged.

"And that would be?" The shrimp was getting impatient fast.

"Nothing." The thief grinned like a certain insane, fictitious feline.

Saguru opted to keep his mouth shut. Kuroba obviously knew what he was doing, and Saguru supposed he would gain valuable information from this meeting sooner or later.

"Then we'll have to start from the beginning…though…I expect an even trade of my information for yours, Kid." Conan glared, and it kind of looked like he was pouting.

"Kaitou's honor," Kid swore.

Conan rolled his eyes and began to lead the way.

They arrived at Professor Agasa's house after a short walk, and they all settled down on the couch for tea.

The seemingly young boy frowned and opened his mouth to say something when the blonde girl that looked to be the same age only brought two cups.

"I don't drink tea anymore anyway," Kaito hummed sadly. "Care to go first, Kudo-kun, or should I?"

Saguru thanked his lucky stars that he had not been drinking anything at that moment. "K-Kudo-kun?!"

"Mmhm." Kaito nodded.

Conan growled softly. "There's not much to tell. I saw something I shouldn't have, they saw me, and they force-fed me poison to try to shut me up. It shrunk me instead of killing me; that's all there is to it. I've been using the Old Man to investigate the Men in Black ever since, and I'm proud to say I actually have a pretty good deal to show for my work."

"Hmm," Kaito mused softly. "I always wondered how you got so small, but…poison, huh? I wasn't so lucky when they used it on me."

Conan's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

Kaito smiled sadly. "I believe a proper introduction is in order. I'm Kuroba Kaito, recently deceased; you may have read my obituary in the paper. This is Hakuba Saguru; he's working on my case. Nice to meet you."

The tiny tantei's mouth opened and closed several times before he finally managed a sentence: "That boy they found in the bay the same night as the last Kid heist…"

Kaito nodded. "Me. Hakuba identified the body himself…. I'd been nipping at the heels of a branch of the Organization for a year or two as Kid, but they finally put me down. Hakuba refused to keep his nose where it belongs, so now he's involved."

"They don't know about him, do they?" Conan's eyes widen in fear.

"Nah. Not yet. I've been spending my afterlife keeping him from getting in trouble, but…we may have gotten the police involved. We've got enough proof to put Snake and the other two we showed you guys pictures of—"

"—Gin and Vodka," Conan supplied.

"Gin and Vodka…away for at least my murder. We've got video evidence of Gin and Vodka supplying the poison and of Snake using it on me, so now we're going to work on rounding them up one by one and getting them to squeal on each other. It may take a while, but it's what we can do. What can you tell us about these…Men in Black? Do you have any information on other operatives?"

Conan nodded. "I'll put together some info and get it to you by the end of the day tomorrow. You can hand it over to the police yourselves, but if they ask where you got your information, keep your mouths shut. They have inside men, and I don't want my name floating around, since I'm supposed to be dead."

"Right," Kaito whispered, nodding in understanding. "Thank you, Meitantei. Anything you can give us will help, since we're kinda flying by the seats of our pants here."

"I'll give you the information of some of my FBI contacts too. There's a branch of them that are after the Organization as well, and I think it'd be better to let the police and the FBI know that they're working on the same project. You know, just so that they can avoid stepping on each other's feet."

"We appreciate it, Kudo-kun," Saguru finally spoke up. "We'll keep you updated on _our_ progress, so please keep in touch."

"I will," Conan assured with a small smile. "It's good to know that there are others working to shut these guys down, just…be careful, Hakuba-kun."

"I will," Saguru promised, and they traded numbers as well as some of the basic information Kudo had gathered so far as Conan.

000

On the way home, the detective and his ghost dropped by the police station and shared what they had learned with Inspector Megure. They were going to call upon Nakamori-keibu as well while they were making their rounds, but the Taskforce as well as the team working on Kaito's case were out of the office, conducting a raid of the Kuroba household.

"Do you happen to know where your mother is?" Saguru asked softly.

Kaito shrugged. "She's long gone. She's got friends all over the world she can go and stay with until things calm down, so she'll be just fine. I mean, she's out of town a lot anyway. It was just pure coincidence that she was even home when I was killed; usually she's out and about, darting around the world three out of every four weeks of the month. You don't have to worry about her, but thanks anyway, Hakuba."

"…Actually, I was more worried about you worrying about her," the detective sheepishly admitted.

Kaito stopped mid-step.

A smile slowly started to form on his face, and he began to walk again, this time with a little spring in his step.

"Thanks, Hakuba. That's sweet."

"It's nothing," Saguru muttered as he looked away to hide his blush and broad grin.

"Nah. It's everything," Kaito laughed as he skipped up the steps onto the porch. "Just being considerate can make all the difference sometimes."

"Saguru? Kuroba-kun?" Baaya called out to them as soon as she heard the door open. "Thank goodness you're home. You ought to see the news!"

"What is it?" Saguru asked for the both of them, slipping off his shoes and dashing into the parlor where Baaya had the television on.

"Wow," Kaito breathed as he recognized the house on screen as his own.

It was surrounded with police cars and cordoned off, but out in the street, kept out by the police barricade, was an enormous crowd of people. They were shouting and crying, waving banners and signs that showed their support and grief. All of Kid's fans had turned out to mourn their loss together. Many had brought flowers, and others had candles. Still others were holding up their mobile phones and swaying back and forth. It was turning into a Kaitou Kid memorial service.

"Wow," Kaito reiterated.

"Don't just stand there in awe, Kuroba. The police are turning your house upside down!" Saguru squeaked.

The phantom thief just shrugged. "The house doesn't matter; everything of importance is either locked up nice and safe or already out. Hakuba, just look at all of those people."

"They're your fans," the detective muttered flatly. "Why do I have the feeling that you're going to end up being immortalized just like Elvis?"

"That's just it. They're my _fans_. I have _fans_, Hakuba!" the magician proclaimed with pride. "Don't you see? Those people loved me. They loved me enough to gather together and bring flowers and cry over me. I entertained them, brought joy to their lives."

"I'm terribly sorry for being a little peeved, Kuroba, when your house is being searched by the police and your true identity is being revealed to the world, but, kindly, what is your point?" Saguru sighed, mind racing as he thought of all of the people finding out Kaito's secret—worst case scenario: their enemies—right at that moment.

"Sorry, Hakuba, but…maybe I got to fulfill my dream after all. Not in the way I had hoped, but…I was a world-class magician, wasn't I?" Kaito looked hopefully at his friend with big, sparkling purple eyes.

Saguru blinked as it clicked. "Yes, Kuroba. Yes you were—the finest."

"Nah, that was my dad, but…I'll settle for second best." The magician beamed. "I guess my life wasn't a total waste after all."

"No. Not a waste at all," Saguru assured, meeting those violet eyes with his own. "Even your death is going to be used to topple a horrendously evil syndicate and save countless lives…. And while you were alive, you made a difference to everyone you came in contact with from the children you helped back up when they'd fallen, or the older people you reminded of their dreams. You inspired the youth of Japan, and you took the minds of the tired workforce off of their troubles whenever you put on a show. And…in more ways than I can count, you've made my life better…Kaito." He tensed as he let the word leave his mouth, but he didn't look away until he saw for sure if he would be rejected or not.

Kuroba smiled, chuckling softly as he patted his friend on the cheek. "You make it hard to stay straight when you wax poetic about me, Saguru. Wanna go watch a movie or something, or did you have something else to do?"

"A movie sounds wonderful," Saguru breathed, absolutely giddy at hearing his given name pass those heavenly lips.

000

They were about half-way through the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie when Baaya called out for them frantically a second time. Well, actually she just called for Saguru, but both boys raced down the hall and down the staircase as fast as their legs could carry them.

"In the living room," the elderly woman sighed as Saguru jumped the last three steps. "You've got a visitor, Sweetheart."

The young master of the house gave his caretaker a puzzled look, wondering why she'd made him think some crazed fiend had broken in and set the place ablaze if it were just a visitor.

"It's Nakamori Aoko-chan, and she looks in a bad way," Baaya whispered.

Kaito's face lost all color, but Saguru only nodded solemnly in understanding.

The boys slowly rounded the corner and came upon the inspector's daughter—face a blotchy mess of red and white with tear tracks well worn down her cheeks.

Her hair was a twisted bird's nest, and her clothes were rumpled.

"Aoko-kun," Saguru breathed.

With that, the poor girl exploded in a fit of tears, stifling her wails by biting down on her handkerchief.

Saguru went to sit beside her on the sofa and got out his own handkerchief to dab at her eyes gently. "It's okay, Aoko-kun. Go ahead and cry; you have every right, and I'm not going to judge you."

She let out a muffled sob as she pressed herself against his side.

Saguru was a little bit at a loss as to what to do.

"Put your arm around her," Kaito urged from where he stood in the doorway, just looking on at his heart-broken darling and letting his own heart shatter as well—his punishment for hurting her.

Saguru did as bid, slowly sliding his arm around his classmate.

She was a lot smaller huddled up in a little ball in his arms than when she skillfully brandished a mop in the classroom.

"I take it you saw the news," he talked to her quietly as she cried, trying to fill the awkward void of quasi-silence.

She hiccupped something that sounded like a question, but Saguru couldn't hear through the handkerchief in her mouth.

"I'm terribly sorry, Aoko-kun. What was that?" he sheepishly asked, listening carefully so that she would not have to repeat it a third time.

"Is it true?" she gasped. "Kaito's Kid?"

"Tell her the truth," Kaito instructed weakly, his own voice cracking.

"It's true," Saguru whispered, gently stroking her hair.

"This whole time?" Aoko choked. "After Aoko de-defended him?"

"I'm sorry, Aoko-kun." The gentleman gave her hand a supportive squeeze as the sobs receded and the angry tirade began.

"Aoko…I defended him, and this whole time he was laughing at all of us behind our backs! At me, at Dad, even at you, Hakuba-kun! How could he?! How could he be…be so cruel?!"

"Aoko-kun, he wasn't," Saguru rushed to speak on his beloved's behalf. "This wasn't just some game to him, Aoko-kun. I didn't understand at first, but he wasn't laughing at us. Sure, I think he enjoyed the rush he got from it along with the mental and physical challenge, but he didn't become Kid just for kicks. Think about it; Kid first made his debut before any of us were born, and he disappeared while we were still little. Kaito could not have been Kid all of those years ago, so who was? You've got what it takes to be a police detective, Aoko-kun; put together the clues."

Aoko blinked away her tears, and a stunned look took the place of anger on her face. "It was Uncle Toichi, wasn't it? …Kaito worshiped his father."

Saguru nodded. "His father was murdered, and I believe Kuroba wanted to track down the killers and know why. He didn't become Kid on a whim, Aoko-kun. He had his reasons."

"And you expect me to just forgive him?" Aoko snorted. "Even if he had a good reason, what he did is still wrong. Think of all of the people he's hurt!"

Saguru sighed, trying his best not to see the wounded look on Kaito's face. "No, Aoko-kun. I don't expect anything. I only wish for you to understand; it is up to you to make your own decisions. I understand, and I've forgiven him…for the most part. Sometimes that dye was a little difficult to get out of my hair."

This got a weak laugh out of both Kaito and Aoko.

"I won't forgive him," the head-strong girl finally muttered. "I don't care why he did it; he betrayed me…completely and utterly betrayed me. I can't forgive that…not right now."

"I don't think he would want you to," Saguru mused. "He can't forgive himself for hurting you, and he can't punish himself enough. He's a bit of a masochist, you know. I think he feels that he deserves your hatred, and I think it makes him feel better."

Aoko blinked. "It sounds as if you know him really well, Hakuba-kun."

"Yes, well, I was quite obsessed with him; I used to research him all the time," Saguru replied with a sheepish blush.

"You used the past tense," Aoko observed. "Are you not obsessed with him anymore?"

Saguru's blush deepened to the shade of a mauve sweater one of his aunts had once given him. "Yes, well…since his death, Kuroba has become a bit less of a god and more of a human to me. My unhealthy fixation has faded into a mere fascination. I've learned a lot about him through my investigation."

"How is that going by the way?" Aoko inquired offhandedly, trying to hide her interest.

Saguru bit his lip before finally responding. "Well. It's going very well. It will take a while, but I imagine you'll hear about it in the news when everything is all wrapped up. I'm afraid I can't say any more at the moment."

Aoko nodded, sighing as she sunk back into the sofa. "Thank you, Hakuba-kun, and…I'm really sorry. It's not fair of me to come crying to you like that, but…I'm sorry; I don't have anyone else I can break down in front of. Thank you _so_ much for being so supportive."

"Don't worry about it, Aoko-kun. You've nothing to apologize for. I'm here for you whenever you need me," Saguru assured. After all, he _was _fond of the mousy brunette, and Kuroba would probably let him have it later if he _didn't_ act supportively.

"Thank you. I…I don't know what to say," she stuttered, a cute blush spreading from her cheeks to her ears.

"Say that you'll stay for dinner," Saguru replied without missing a beat. "It should be ready in a little less than an hour, and we'd love to have you."

"I couldn't impo—"

"—Nonsense," he quickly cut her off. "Aoko-kun, you're always welcome here. Besides, just listen to Baaya whistling in the kitchen. Could you really deny her a guest to pamper? I will bet she is especially excited because you are the first friend I've had over. She's probably over the moon due to the fact that you're female."

Aoko blinked. "But…you don't like…"

"Women?" Saguru chuckled, giving Aoko's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "While it's true that I vastly prefer men, I haven't ruled out the fairer sex completely. Who knows? You might be the one to make me change my mind."

Aoko's entire face changed to a bright crimson in two seconds flat.

"I'm terribly sorry, Aoko-kun. Am I making you uncomfortable?" Saguru rushed to remove his arm from around her shoulders.

"N-No," she stuttered, looking down and away as her blush worsened. "I was just thinking that…that's really sweet, Hakuba-kun. I was just…just thinking that maybe I should do what you said and not let my feelings for Kaito in the past hold me back from moving on and being happy in the future."

"Oh." Saguru blinked. "G-Good."

000

Kaito was noticeably absent at dinner that night, and as Aoko came over more often to hang out, the ghost found other places that he needed to be, most often the Mouri Detective Agency, Hakuba suspected.

The teen detective began to worry that his best friend was angry with him and holding a grudge of some kind. He gathered together his courage one night and finally asked Kaito about it.

"It's _fine_, Saguru. I'm not mad at you," the apparition assured. "I _want_ you two to end up together, it's just…it's hard watching you guys be happy without me."

A few weeks passed, and little progress was made on the investigation; Saguru and Aoko, however, were getting along swimmingly. They were now sitting next to each other at school after "The Ghost of Kuroba Kaito" had terrorized anyone and everyone besides Saguru who had tried to take the magician's old seat.

"You're being childish, Kaito," Saguru scolded, but his friend had merely shrugged and laughed.

After a month with no breakthroughs, both boys decided that something must be done.

"We have to force their hand," Saguru muttered as he scanned the papers laid out all over his bed.

"How do we do that?" Kaito scoffed as he practiced picking up objects and holding them as long as he could.

"I'm not sure," the detective hummed.

Saguru's phone pinged.

"Text from Aoko," the more immature of the two snickered. "Your girlfriend wants to go on a date."

"She's not my girlfriend, and we're focusing on _you_ right now," Saguru replied curtly without looking up.

"Why isn't she your girlfriend?" Kaito pouted putting down the phone and picking up an eraser. "You two make a cute couple."

"I'm not ready for that kind of relationship," Saguru calmly responded. "Focus, Kaito."

"Why not? What's holding you back?" the ghost demanded.

Two pleading golden eyes finally met Kaito's violets. Those eyes sheepishly begged him to understand.

Kaito blinked. "You…still love me?"

"I can't help it," Saguru sighed, setting down his notebook and pen. "I'm trying, Kaito. I just can't get you out of my head."

Kaito nodded, having nothing else to say. He finally decided upon: "I guess it'll just take some time."

"Let's work on the case?" Saguru proposed.

Kaito nodded again, setting down the eraser and picking up a pencil. "How do we force their hand? What do you mean by that?"

"Well, the way I see it, they may be keeping it on the down-low since your death because of all of the media coverage. We have to force them to come out of hiding so that we can catch one or two operatives and start chipping away at them. I just don't know what we could do to draw them out."

Kaito blinked as a light bulb came on over his head. "We'll do it the way I did it the first time: bring Kid back from the dead. We'll have a heist!"

"That's brilliant, Kaito!" Saguru exclaimed. "Snake's bound to come out to play if a man he thinks he's killed twice already sends out a challenge!"

"This is gonna be great! I'll send out a note through the newspaper saying that I've found what they're looking for, and they'll come for sure on the night of the heist! All I have to do is steal the jewel and lead them into a trap set up by the police. You can bring the idea up to the Black Organization's Taskforce and mine, can't you?" Kaito sounded beyond excited.

"There's only one problem, Kaito. We can't guarantee that anyone will see you."

The magician's face fell when he realized his companion had a point. "Then…what are we going to do?"

"Well, someone else will just have to put the suit on." Saguru shrugged.

"No," Kaito hissed. "I'm not lettin' somebody else go out there and risk their neck, pretendin' to be me, Saguru. It's _not_ happening. Sure, I may have gotten killed in the end, but I knew what I was doing. There's no way I'm gonna let someone without any training go and gamble with their life. There's no guarantee that Snake's not gonna get tired of me and my nine lives and go for the headshot. It's too dangerous."

Saguru nodded, considering their options as Kaito set down the pencil and picked up a small notebook.

It was quiet for a moment, and then Saguru had a brilliant idea. "But, Kaito, aren't there people trained to stand in for you? I know you couldn't have pulled all of those heists off by yourself. You had help, so couldn't one of your assistants play stunt double for you again? There must be at least one or two that you trust enough to do this. Isn't there anyone that you think is up to the task?"

Kaito's face lit up. "There are a couple people that could probably do it, but there's this one that I know we can count on. She goes by 'Chrysanthemum', but I call her 'Kiku-chan'. I think she's some kind of secret agent that worked with my dad or something, but she's got this mysterious streak going. One thing's for certain, she's got the moves, and she's too stubborn to die. I'd feel more comfortable sending her than Jii-chan, my mom, or any of the others."

"Excellent. We'll have to get into contact with her and then set it all up with the police, but I honestly think this is going to work, Kaito. We're so close," the Brit tried his hardest not to sound giddy.

"I know," Kaito laughed, trying too to contain his excitement.

His smile faded when he set down the notebook, picked up a newspaper, and happened to glimpse an article about a comet coming at the end of the month. "Saguru? We should probably hurry."

…

Y

Mikau: Yeah, I know it's the letter 'y', but doesn't it kind of look like a martini glass. Then again, I don't have much experience with martini glasses, so how would I know? Anyway, thanks for dropping in guys. One chapter and the epilogue left. Hopefully I'll get them up before the end of the year. See you next time!


	7. The Siege (or: Closure)

Mikau: Hello there! Wondering where I've been these past few weeks? I kind of got distracted by my friend Taylor. Blame him. Anyway, thanks to all who reviewed last chapter: Sirastar, Shara Raizel, Minervana1, Athie Lestrade, and Aniki-xvi. All that's left is this and the epilogue; I hope you guys enjoy it!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, Genta-kun's bald spot would be the first to go. While it gives him character, it also annoys my OCD.

….

The Siege (or: Closure)

That very night the duo took a trip to Beika to visit Kaito's contact, "Chrysanthemum".

"Hopefully she's in," Kaito sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets as Saguru knocked on the door. "Maybe we'll get really lucky and she'll be able to see me."

"Cross your fingers," the detective muttered, looking around for a doorbell or something.

"Intercom's to your right," the ghost added helpfully.

"Oh. Thank you," Saguru replied, pressing the button.

"Hello? Can I help you with somethin'?" a low, female voice asked in a slight slur.

"Uh, yes. Are you Chrysanthemum? You'll probably find this hard to believe, but I was sent by Kuroba Kaito. I heard from him that you were one of his assistants. I need your help. My name is—"

"—Come in," she cut him off.

There was the click of the lock being undone, and then the door slowly opened.

Saguru paused, tossing his friend an inquisitive sidelong glance.

Kaito just shrugged; Kiku-chan could be all mysterious and curt like that sometimes…usually when she was in a bad mood.

Gulping, the detective stepped forward into the unlit atrium.

He woke up approximately twenty-three minutes and fourteen point three seconds later, tied to a chair and gagged.

"You up?" the same voice from earlier chuckled darkly.

Saguru blinked as he came to, slowly processing his surroundings.

The woman—presumably Chrysanthemum—was a few feet behind him and to the left.

He could hear her pacing back and forth either out of boredom or in an attempt to intimidate him.

Kaito was right beside him, a hand on his shoulder. "Sorry," the magician whispered. "She's paranoid and doesn't trust people easily. I didn't think she'd react like this, but don't worry. I'll get you outta here in once piece, Saguru, even if I have to die a second time."

Saguru nodded, struggling against his restraints as he continued to look around.

He seemed to be in some kind of dressing room.

There were a few different varieties of mirrors, a vanity, a closet and various racks full of costumes, and a bookshelf of wigs. More disturbing was the cabinet full of guns that had been left open to the right of the vanity.

There seemed to be two exits: one going upstairs and another feeding into the living room and the kitchen beyond. (He could see into the other rooms easily, since the house didn't seem to have doors but curtains of beads and bells instead. It served as a nice burglar alarm, really, for someone as paranoid as Chrysanthemum seemed to be. She'd hear the beads rattle and bells ring whenever someone passed from one room to the next).

"Okay, Goldilocks. Here's how this is going to work: I'm gonna ask you some questions, and you're gonna give me some answers. Okay?" Chrysanthemum chuckled, words slurring together.

Saguru grunted, unable to do much more with the gag still in place. He made a note of the empty alcohol containers overflowing from the garbage bag lying on its side on the kitchen floor.

"Good. Now, before we begin, I just want t' let you know that no one's gonna hear you scream, so try to keep a lid on it. I'm not a sadist; I don't like yellin' and carryin' on. Besides, I've gotta headache." She was right behind him now, and he could feel cold metal brush his neck as she undid the gag.

A gun.

Saguru shivered involuntarily.

"So?" The woman came around in front of him, dragging a chair behind her. She sat down in the chair backwards and smiled, pointing the gun right at his forehead. "Are you here to kill me?"

Lord in heaven, she was scary.

Her hair was an unnatural shade of bright yellow, and her cat-like eyes were chartreuse. The gun and the half-crazy grin did not help—nor did the fact that she was obviously intoxicated and therefore most probably incapable of logical thought.

"N-No. I am not," Saguru replied, trying to keep his voice steady.

She could probably smell his fear.

"How did you find me then?" She cocked her head to the side, smiling like a hyena. "Only people that I work with and people that want to kill me know me as 'Chrysanthemum'; all others call me 'Chrisy Monroe'. You're not wanna my coworkers, and you say you're not here to kill me, so how did you find me, and how do you know I'm Chrysanthemum?"

"I _told _you. Kaito told me," Saguru stressed, trying to ignore the firearm pointed at his cranium.

People like Chrisy Monroe did not respond to sniveling and pleading. He had to remain calm and indignant if he hoped to walk away from this misunderstanding alive.

"Kaito sent me," the detective explained as the ghost himself squeezed Saguru's shoulders from behind.

"Kiddo's dead," Chrisy snarled, baring her teeth like a threatened animal.

The front door opened, and Chrysanthemum snapped to attention, getting to her feet and aiming her weapon at the doorway.

"You home, Chris?" a monotone male voice called.

"Kei? You're not supposed to be home until tomorrow!" Saguru's attacker sounded almost panicked.

A large, redheaded man pushed through the curtain and stepped into the room. He gave Chrisy a blank look upon witnessing the scene in the dressing room. "Crystal, you've been drinking."

"A little?" The other blonde smiled sheepishly.

"A _lot_. You're drunk. I leave t' go on a mission for a week, and ya can't even take care of yerself for that long. What were ya gonna do? Clean everything up tomorrow before I got home?" 'Kei' growled, but his facial expression didn't change much.

"Maybe?" Chrisy winced. "Look, I'm having a rough time, Kei."

"Doesn't matter," the redhead retorted, shaking his head and indicating Saguru. "And what the hell is this?"

"Oh, Goldilocks? He came looking for Chrysanthemum; obviously he knows too much. He says the Kiddo sent him. He said the Kiddo told him I was his assistant. We were just talking." Chrysanthemum glared at the detective.

"Chris, that's Hakuba Saguru, the Superintendent's son," Kei sighed, coming around to untie Saguru's binds.

"Really?!" The drunk broke down in peals of laughter. "Coronel Mustang's got a son?!"

Kei turned to Saguru, and his expression changed slightly. It sort of looked like a frown. "Forgive her. She's gone mad with grief, she doesn't read the paper much, and she's drunk." He then turned briefly to look in Kaito's direction before going back to Saguru. "Is that…?" He pointed to Kaito. "Can you see…?"

"Do you see him?!" Saguru gasped, hoping they'd found an answer to their prayers.

Kei shook his head, Prussian blue eyes glinting in the low lighting. "Just a little blue spirit orb, but that's the Runt, right?"

"If you mean Kuroba Kaito, then, yes," the detective replied with a small smile as he rubbed his sore wrists.

"What's goin' on?" Chrisy raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

Kei turned back to his partner and explained. "Hakuba-kun told ya that Runt had sent 'im, right?"

Chrisy nodded, willing to give her best friend the benefit of the doubt.

"Well, I'd believe 'im, if I were you. Runt's ghost is standin' right there with him." Kei shrugged, pointing out Kaito.

Chrisy dropped her gun (which Kei skillfully caught before it could hit the floor and possibly go off), and her chin nearly collided with the ground as well as her mouth fell open. She shook her head. "No way."

"Tell her, if she needs proof, I'd be more than happy to haunt her a little by putting almond extract on her food," Kaito chuckled.

Saguru gave his friend a curious look but relayed the message.

Chrisy stumbled, falling back down into her chair. "K-Kaito?"

"She's super afraid of cyanide poisoning," the apparition explained. "It's kind of entertaining to watch her drink almond milk."

"He says he's right here," Saguru lied for the young woman's benefit.

Chrisy broke down in tears, and Kei went to put his arm around her.

"I'm sorry!" she sobbed. "Kaito, I'm so sorry. I-I couldn't protect you. I've f-failed. I couldn't keep my promise."

"Saguru, tell her it's okay," Kaito sighed, going over to put his translucent hand on her shoulder. "You didn't fail, Kiku-chan, and Oyaji's not gonna be mad at you, 'cause you always did your best to protect me. Don't worry about it, 'cause there was nothing you could of done. Besides, I'm fine, but…I need your help."

"With what?" Chrisy looked up, the last of Saguru's words catching her attention.

"We're gonna do one last heist," Kaito explained with a smirk while Saguru provided a translation for the others who could not hear the ghost. "The comet's coming soon, so the organization's gonna be in a panic."

"How do ya know that?" Chrisy blinked, brow furrowing. "We've never known when the comet was coming."

"Is that the one in th' papers?" Kei looked to the glowing orb for answers.

"It fits the description." Kaito shrugged. "It's gotta be it. Anyway, if we're not sure, the organization's not gonna be sure either. They'll be in a panic, and we're gonna take advantage of that. We're gonna announce that we've found Pandora, get them all excited, lure them out, and once we've got them lured out, we're gonna capture them with the help of the police. We've already got enough evidence to sink Snake for my murder and two others called Gin and Vodka who were responsible for shrinking Tantei-kun. Once we capture them, we'll get them to sell out the others. We're gonna take the organization down one crook at a time, but I need your help, Kiku-chan."

"Name it." Chrisy shrugged. "You know I'd do anything, Kiddo."

"I need you to play the part of Kid, Kiku-chan. It's gonna be super dangerous, and I can't trust anyone else to do it without getting killed. I'm really sorry to ask this of you, but—"

"—I'll do it," Chrisy cut Saguru off with conviction. "Just tell me when, where, and what you want me to do, and I'll do it. Just have Goldilocks call me with the details, or come here to see me again."

"I want t' help too," Kei insisted. "If she's gonna be in danger, I wanna be there for her."

"Kei, I'll be fine," Chrisy sighed. "I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself."

"This from th' girl that I've been feeding and cleaning up after for the past two months," Kei scoffed.

Chrisy snorted back at her partner. "I'm better _now_…now that I know Kiddo's okay."

"Chris, you're still drunk. You're far from okay." Kei rolled his dark blue eyes, shaking his head fondly at her.

"I'll be sober tomorrow!" Chrisy argued.

"You'll be hung-over tomorrow," Kei corrected.

"But I'll be okay the day after that!" the blonde pouted.

Kei nodded. "That sounds 'bout right."

"Thank you so much for your cooperation." Saguru bowed with a grin. "I trust that Kaito has your contact information, so we'll be in touch."

000

The Black Organization Taskforce (in conjunction with the FBI, CIA, Kaitou Kid Taskforce, and Chrisy and Kei's own super secret organization) spent two weeks planning for the heist, and, by the end, they had the plan down to an art form.

The stage would be the Ekoda Art Museum where thousands of cameras had been installed around the perimeter, on every street corner so that the surveillance team had eyes everywhere and the ability to see the enemy coming and going.

The Kaitou Kid Taskforce was there, joined by the team that had been assigned to Kaito's case for added numbers.

The rest of the operatives from the other organizations were stationed around the museum in disguise as traffic cops, security guards, and a wide range of civilians.

Chrisy was in place, waiting for the appointed time, and Saguru was standing next to that night's target—the Gift of the Heavens.

Saguru sighed, mentally counting down the seconds.

"Nervous?" Kaito chuckled nervously, trying to keep still.

"How can I not be? People are going to die tonight," Saguru hissed under his breath. "People are going to die, and it's my fault. It's my own stupid plan, and people are putting their faith in it. There's going to be a gunfight when we try to roundup Snake and his crew, and people are going to die, Kaito."

"Yeah, but it's a good plan, and these people are willing to die for the greater good. They know what they're getting into, and you've worked hard to make sure everyone is as safe as they possibly could be. Don't let this weigh on your conscience, Saguru," Kaito encouraged softly, patting the blonde's head. "You did a really good job, and everything's gonna work out. Everybody believes in this plan…and you. We're gonna win, Saguru."

The detective nodded, taking a deep breath. "We're going to win."

"Better get ready," Kaito whispered, giving Saguru's hand a reassuring squeeze. "She's coming."

Saguru went back to counting in his head.

Thirty…twenty-nine…twenty-eight….

"Breathe, Tantei-san," Kaito urged.

"Fifteen…fourteen…thirteen…" Saguru muttered.

"Do you always get like this at my heists?" Kaito chuckled, gently nudging his friend. "Calm down."

Three…two…

The lights went out as planned, and glass shattered, a maniacal laugh filling the air.

Kaito blinked, gazing in awe at the Moonlit Phantom before him. "So that's what it's supposed to look like…" he mumbled, taking in the sight of Kiku-chan dressed as the original Kaitou 1412.

The phantom thief laughed, swiping the jewel and taking off amid heated banter.

"GET HIM!" Nakamori bellowed, and they were off.

Saguru ran as fast as he could, right on Chrisy's heels until she took off from the roof. He slowed down and came to a halt, just staring after her and panting for breath. He smiled, knowing that would be the last time he ever chased the white-clad thief.

He pulled out his radio and called the surveillance team. "This is Goldilocks to the Bird's Nest. Do you have eyes?"

"This is the Bird's Nest. We currently have eyes on several different buildings…ten in total. We're deploying units now."

"Go ahead." Saguru nodded, going to the lip of the roof and looking out over the city. He turned to Kaito. "Nothing we can do now. It's starting."

Kaito nodded back, leaning against the railing and looking up at the stars.

000

"What were ya thinkin' landin' on that rooftop and takin' Snake on yerself?!" That was the first and last time that Saguru ever heard Kei-san raise his voice. "You coulda gotten yourself killed!" he yelled as he cleaned the wounds his love had sustained.

Chrisy shrugged, trying her hardest to contain a grin. "I had a bone to pick with the guy. He killed two of the only people I've ever cared for."

"Toichi-san wouldn't of wanted ya to do that," Kei growled.

"Oh, there were times he wanted to punch that creep in the face himself. Toi-chan just had more self-restraint than I do. We can't all be saints, and I'm still breathing, aren't I?"

"It's a good thing the officers were already there, though," Saguru sighed, absentmindedly watching the less wounded of the officers receive first aid.

"Hey," Nakamori-keibu greeted loudly as he approached.

"Inspector!" Saguru jumped to his feet. "How many did we lose? Do you know?"

"Twenty-three," the older man sighed, collapsing into the chair Saguru had just vacated. "Not bad considering, but there's a lot more that's wounded."

"How many did we get?" Saguru asked softly.

"Forty-seven," the inspector laughed heartily. "We did good, Kid. Most of 'em are squealin' already, and we're workin' on getting even more as we speak. Only a couple of theirs died in the firefight, and some of 'em got away, but…I'd say we did pretty good."

"I'd say," Chrisy laughed as Kei wrapped her arm. "I've been waiting to get Snake for _years_ for what he did to Toi-chan. Shame we can't get him for _that_ crime, but the Kiddo's murder charge is gonna stick, isn't it?"

Nakamori nodded soberly. "He's turnin' on his partners faster than some of the others. We're sending out a squad to pick up those Gin and Vodka guys now."

"Good," Kaito sighed, leaning against Saguru. "I can't wait to tell Tantei-kun the good news."

"Oh yeah," Nakamori turned to Chrisy and held out his hand. "That jewel? You've gotta give it back, you know."

Chrisy blinked, feigning surprise. "Snake has it. He took it from me during the struggle."

"He what?!" the inspector boomed, getting to his feet and storming off.

The con artist fought a smirk.

"It's not nice t' lie, Chris," Kei chastised.

Saguru turned to the other blonde and gawked. "What happened to it really?"

She finally let herself smile fully. "Smashed it to bits."

"Why on earth would you do that?!" Saguru squeaked.

"No way…" Kaito breathed.

Kei paused, turning to look at his beloved with curiosity. "Seriously, Chris?"

She nodded. "When I was flying away with it, it caught a moonbeam and started glowing red. I landed to take a closer look at it, and it really did have another stone inside of it, so I smashed them both to bits and scattered the dust on the wind as I flew on. Nobody's using that thing for evil now. Now Toi-chan and the Kiddo can rest in peace."

"You too," Kei replied softly. "I know ya've been all preoccupied over whether or not Toichi-san died for nothin' all these years. Now ya know that there really was a stone of immortality and he died fightin' the good fight."

Chrisy nodded. "Now maybe I can get some sleep at night."

"Me too," Kaito cooed, smiling contentedly.

000

"It's beautiful," Saguru whispered, leaning on his balcony railing and looking up at the stars.

"Mmhm," Kaito agreed softly, keeping an eye out for the comet.

"Hey, did I tell you what I heard today, Kaito?" Saguru looked back at his beloved with a wide grin plastered to his face.

"No. What?" Kaito was having trouble summoning up pokerface enthusiasm.

"I heard from one of the guys on the BO Taskforce that a woman calling herself Vermouth came to surrender herself today. She's being really cooperative to lower her own sentence, and she's giving us a _ton_ of other influential members' names and locations. If things keep going at this pace, we may just clean them out by the end of the next year or so. Isn't that wonderful?"

"Yeah," the magician whispered, trying to keep his smile in place.

"Look!" Saguru pointed as a star shot across the sky…or maybe that was the comet? A meteor? Kaito wasn't quite sure. "Make a wish."

Kaito was torn between wishing for heaven to exist and wishing to be reincarnated as someone close to his loved ones now. Maybe as Aoko and Saguru's kid? It was too soon for them to have kids. What would happen to him in the meantime?

"What did you wish for?" Saguru asked, smiling in absolute contentment back at Kaito.

"You know it won't come true if you tell someone else, and I _need_ this one, Saguru," Kaito managed a genuine chuckle.

"But I'm curious," Saguru whined.

"You're acting like a hyper little kid," Kaito laughed. "What's up with you tonight?"

Saguru shook his head, the smile still stuck in place. "I'm happy, Kaito. We just saved the world not a week ago! My plan worked. Everyone trusted me, and it paid off. People are showing me respect now, and I…I made a difference, Kaito. I did something right for once, and…I'm happy."

Kaito nodded, smiling sadly at his friend. "I'm happy for you. You're a great detective, Saguru, and a great man. You deserve to be happy; I've got a feeling you're gonna be really successful in the future too."

Saguru raised an eyebrow at his friend in suspicion. "Kaito, what's the matter? You're acting off."

"Saguru, I've gotta go," the spirit whispered.

"To visit your mother?" Saguru smiled. "Go ahead. It's no big deal; I suppose I'll manage to live a day or two without you. Make sure to come back soon, though."

Kaito frowned. "Saguru, that's not what I mean. I'm gonna go see my mom before that, but…I'm leaving."

"L-Leaving?" Saguru swallowed hard. "You don't mean permanently, do you?"

Kaito nodded, closing his eyes so that he wouldn't have to see the devastated look on his friend's face.

"Kaito, you can't! I'll never see you again! Please," the sleuth begged, wrapping his arms around the apparition. "Please, Kaito. Don't go. I love you."

"I know," Kaito whispered, focusing his energy on hugging Saguru back. "I know you do, and it's holding you back. You can't move on and fall for Aoko because I'm still here. I need to move on so that you can too."

"No! I swear I'll move on and start a relationship with Aoko, so please don't leave," Saguru promised frantically.

"You can't start a relationship, if your heart's not in it," Kaito chuckled. "And…this isn't just about you, Saguru. I need to move on for my own sake as well. It's the natural order of things."

"B-But—" Saguru argued.

"Shh…" Kaito pulled back, pressing a finger to the detective's lips. "I know. It's gonna be a rough transition. You didn't really have time to mourn me when I first died because I was always right by your side, haunting you, and now that we've grown even closer, it'll probably be pretty hard, but…I want you to hang in there, and I want you to take care of yourself. Your friendship has meant a lot to me, and without you, I don't think I ever would have been able to rest in peace."

"Kaito…" Saguru tried his hardest to contain his tears as he stared into his darling's captivating indigo eyes.

"Shh…just one last thing. I really regret never noticing you before. I wish I'd known how you'd felt. I wish I'd been able to love you the way you deserved, 'cause there have been times over these past few months that you've made me wish I were gay. Do me a favor, and find someone that really makes you happy. Just be happy, Saguru," Kaito whispered, leaning forward and pressing his lips to his detective's cheek. "Goodbye, and thanks for everything."

With a wink, the magician vanished into thin air.

"KAITO!" Saguru shouted, sinking to his knees as his beloved disappeared right before his very eyes.

Saguru cried a great deal, locking himself in his room and refusing to eat. He didn't go to school for an entire month, but then, one Monday morning, he got up, got dressed, and carried on with his life.

….

む

Mikau: I've always thought that the hiragana mu looked like a cow. I know. You're probably mad at me now for ending it like that. I know it's a horrible cliffhanger, but I'm going to try to get the epilogue up before New Year's. Thanks so much for sticking with me up until now! You guys take care!


End file.
